


she's electric

by SilverHeart09



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Drabbles, F/F, Including the Doctor and men, One-Shots, Smut in some places, thasmin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-03
Updated: 2019-06-23
Packaged: 2019-10-03 15:42:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 29,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17286869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverHeart09/pseuds/SilverHeart09
Summary: Drabble series surrounding the Thirteenth Doctor and her fam. Thasmin galore.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> These are all of the stories that I wasn't able to expand on and fit into Glorious, they're shorter drabbles but hopefully just as adorable!

1

It isn’t until they’re all safely back in the TARDIS and the three humans have gone to bed that the Doctor really has a chance to look at herself.

A brief glance in the changing room mirror was all she’d needed to decide what outfit to wear. She’d been planning on getting to know herself once she was teleported back to her TARDIS, but then space had happened and Desolation had happened and then she’d had three humans to take home and then Rosa Parks had happened then once they’d finally made it back home  _ giant spiders  _ had happened and it was only now, standing in front of the mirror completely naked that the Doctor really had a chance to  _ look.  _

She scrunched up her face and nervously twisted a strand of her hair, trying to remember what River had looked like. She’d been taller, and curvier, and generally more voluptuous. Is that what women were supposed to look like? Yaz didn't look like River, in fact none of her companions had looked liked River. That woman was in a league of her own.

She shuffled nervously closer to the mirror and put her hands on her hips, scrutinising. She was certainly slim this time, flat stomach, soft skin, toned legs and arms and, of course,  _ those. _

That should have been a hint when she’d landed through the train in Sheffield but she’d been a tad preoccupied at the time. That weight on her chest that hadn’t been there before, the slight pain and pulling sensation as she’d ran after Tim Shaw, the general  _ movement  _ of something under her shirt.

Yaz had taken her to be measured after she’d realised that her new alien bestie didn't have a bra on and the only thing keep her new breasts from jiggling all over the place was a waistcoat that was too big for her. The Doctor scrutinised the tiny piece of cloth that kept them strapped to her chest all day. It hardly seemed fair. What’s the point in even having them if you had to keep them literally tightly secured all the time? She knew the answer of course, but now she was a woman it was that tiniest bit more enraging. 

The Doctor gently cupped her breasts in her hands and considered them. They were small but the skin was soft and it was a comforting weight, certainly not like River’s. She’d had a cleavage that’d had its own gravitational pull. 

_ Pulled your face in enough times. _

Her voice popped into the Doctor’s head and she made a face, of course River would want to be here for this. 

She leaned into the mirror to scrutinise her face. Her eyebrows were certainly less obvious this time around, neat arched lines that went well with her new forehead. She pulled some faces, just to make sure that when she was glaring at people who were irritating, her eyebrows were doing what she wanted them to.

Her eyes were a nice colour, green with a hint of brown. She smiled and was pleased to see that her eyes shone. Definitely softer this time around. She hadn’t wanted to try any of that makeup malarky, not yet anyway, but luckily she didn't seem to need it and Yaz was always complaining about how lovely her skin was and how it wasn’t fair. Yaz was also desperate to go to a ball or a big party in space, maybe she’d try some - what was the word Donna used to use? -  _ slap  _ then. 

She had to admit, she was loving her new hair. She didn't even know hair could  _ swoosh  _ that much. It was bouncy and soft and looked cute hanging around her new face. She also loved the colour, although it did remind her a little of Rose. The earring had been a passing fancy, something that had caught her eye in the window. She felt like she needed something there, something a bit extra, something pretty to accentuate her new features. Yaz had even held her hand when she’d had her ear pierced, not that it had hurt.

Okay, maybe it had hurt a bit. 

The Doctor eyed warily that unfamiliar triangle of hair between her legs. She knew what a vagina was, of course, but had never had the pleasure of having one herself.

_ Why don’t you take it for a test drive?  _ River purred in her head and she pulled a face as she considered, one finger sliding down to feel the slick heat.

Then she heard Ryan snore loudly from next door and the moment was broken. She pulled a t-shirt over her head and clambered into bed. Maybe later, once she’d moved Ryan’s room somewhere else. 

_ Spoilsport. _

 

2

‘Look, in a minute your body is going to decide that you’re having a nap whether you want one or not, so  _ sit down.’ _

‘I’m fine, stop fussing.’

‘You are not fine!’

‘I’d listen to him if I were you,’ Ryan said, watching the exchange between Graham and the Doctor with interest. ‘You look like crap.’

‘Charming!’

‘Doctor, please,’ Yaz said from her spot on the floor, legs stretched out in front of her. ‘Have a quick ten minutes. All that pacing is making me dizzy.’

The Doctor paused in her pacing of the small cell and looked at them as though they’d all grown extra arms and legs. 

‘Don’t you want me to get you out of here?’

‘We’re not being executed until the morning and you could probably come up with a plan in ten seconds  _ if you were thinking straight,  _ which right now you’re not. So sit down, have one of your Time Lord healing naps,  _ then  _ get us out of here,’ Graham told her sternly. 

‘Time Lord healing naps don’t work like that,’ the Doctor protested grumpily, sticking a finger in the lock on the door and wriggling it about a bit, as though she hoped it would magically transform into a key if she willed it hard enough.

‘Doctor,’ Yaz said softly, and she wilted, unable to refuse Yaz anything.

Graham gently took her by the arm, unprotesting, and led her over to Yaz, carefully sitting her down on Yaz’s left side.

‘You sit there and have a snooze, okay?’ he told her. ‘We’ll be fine.’

‘Really shouldn’t,’ the Doctor said weakly, eyes already sliding slowly closed.

‘We’ve got all night,’ Ryan said. ‘Like grandad said, you’ll think of a plan in seconds when you’re thinking clearly.’

The Doctor slumped against Yaz who carefully tucked an arm across her friend’s shoulders. 

‘Like trying to get a bloody child to take a nap,’ Graham chuckled, sitting down on the floor and watching the Doctor as she slept quietly against Yaz.

‘I’m just glad she isn’t dead,’ Ryan said. ‘That blast smacked her really hard.’

Eyes turned to the makeshift bandage tied around the Doctor’s waist. It was Ryan’s favourite shirt but he hadn’t protested as Yaz tugged it off him to press against the Doctor’s injured side, her warm blood seeping through Yaz’s fingers as she’d gritted her teeth against the pain, on her hands and knees on the ground.

They’d been captured pretty quickly after that. 

‘It’s not bleeding through, is it?’ Yaz asked.

Graham carefully lifted the Doctor’s coat away from it to check. 

‘No, it’s fine. Shall we take it in turns staying awake?’

The Doctor chose that moment to pitch forward off Yaz’s shoulder and her friend caught her quickly, gently lowering the Doctor’s head to her lap while Ryan carefully rearranged her legs. 

‘I’ll stay awake,’ Yaz said. ‘Better keep an eye on this one. I’ll wake you up in a couple of hours?’

Ryan nodded and stretched out on the hard ground, tucking his hands behind his head and closing his eyes, Graham doing the same. Although he did take a second to complain about the back pain he was going to get in the morning as he stretched out beside his grandson.

The two men fell asleep to Yaz talking softly to her unconscious friend, fingers gently combing through the Doctor’s hair as she kept her safe and warm.

 

3

_ So that’s why Yaz and the Doc always pair off,  _ Graham pondered from where he was watching (definitely not spying) as Yaz pressed the Doctor up against the wall to kiss her hard, hands automatically going to her waist as the Doctor’s lips moved against hers, her fingers wound into Yaz’s hair.

He’d only come back to tell them that he’d found the magical green crystal so they could stop looking, although looking for the mysterious artifact seemed to be the last thing on their mind right now.

‘Aw mate, you owe me a tenner,’ Ryan said from over his shoulder, mouth hanging open.

When Yaz’s hand snuck under the Doctor’s shirt they made their getaway. Fast. 

 

4

When Yaz heard the banging on the door of her flat she knew instinctively who it was, but she burrowed down into her duvet all the same, the bag of ice pressed to her forehead melting into the fabric of her pillow. 

She heard soft voices by the door, too quiet to make out, but that familiar distinctive northern twang was unmissable, as was her mum’s soft insistence that Yaz didn't want to be disturbed and the person had to leave.

The door closed again and Yaz felt a sinking feeling in her chest, She didn't want her friends to see her like this, but she also really wanted to see her friends. 

Najia knocked on the door a few seconds later and popped her head around the frame.

‘That was the Doctor. I told her you weren’t feeling well.’

‘Thanks, mum,’ Yaz said quietly, feeling disappointed all the same, something her mother quickly picked up on.

‘I could run after her if you want?’

Yaz shook her head. ‘No. Not today. Maybe tomorrow.’

She really shouldn’t have been surprised, therefore, when that familiar  _ buzt  _ of the sonic screwdriver sounded at her window a few hours later, the glass pane sliding upwards as the Doctor ungainly clambered through, landing with a soft  _ thump  _ on the floor. 

‘Something wrong with the door?’ Yaz asked, voice muffled by her sheets.

‘Doors are for people with no imagination,’ the Doctor said, standing up and brushing herself down. ‘Also, you weren’t answering it. Why weren’t you answering it?’

‘So you broke into my room?’

‘Obviously. You’re my fam.’

Yaz peeked up at the Doctor through her hair, her friend stood looking down at her with soft eyes and a concerned expression.

‘How did you…?’

The blue light of the TARDIS shone through her window, hovering ethereally in the night sky, as though it had heard her question.

‘I thought the sound of her materialising might have woken your mum up,’ the Doctor said, at least having the sense to look slightly guilty. ‘I told her you wanted to be left alone but she wouldn’t stop dinging.  _ Let’s go see Yaz. I want to see Yaz.  _ She wouldn’t shut up about you.’

Yaz’s laugh was muffled by her pillow but the Doctor grinned anyway then sat on the edge of her bed, trying to dig Yaz out from under her duvet.

‘Come on then, let’s have a look at you. What’s so awful you were trying to hide from - oh.’

A cool hand brushed across Yaz’s cheek and she winched, the skin still sore and bruised. Something unrecognisable flickered like fire across the Doctor’s face and she flopped down onto the bed next to Yaz, watching her intently. 

‘Perks of the job,’ Yaz said, voice quiet.

‘Did they catch the guy?’

‘No. He got away.’

‘What happened?’ the Doctor asked softly, hand still gently caressing her cheek, sending shivers through Yaz’s entire body. 

‘Drunk and disorderly. Hell of a right hook,’ Yaz said, the memory of the punch that had snapped her neck painfully to the side and sent her sprawling to the ground still vivid in her memory. ‘My partner was dealing with someone else so he got away.’

That looked flashed across her face again and for a moment Yaz was worried the Doctor was going to break something, but instead she kicked her boots off and slid underneath the duvet, wrapping her arms around Yaz tightly in a surprise, but much appreciated, hug.

‘I could have fixed it in the TARDIS,’ she mumbled into Yaz’s hair.

‘I know,’ Yaz said. ‘But I can’t have a black eye one night and completely clear skin the next day.’ 

The Doctor made a harumph noise, but conceded the point. 

‘Why did you hide from me?’ she asked after a pause.

‘I was worried,’ Yaz responded quietly, unsure of how to answer.

‘Worried of what?’

‘Worried of what you’d do.’

The Doctor sat up quickly, looking down at Yaz uncertainly. 

‘Are you scared of me, Yasmin?’ 

The use of her full name made Yaz sit up too, reaching for the Doctor’s hand.

‘No! Of course not. I just know what you’re like when something hurts someone you care about,’ she replied softly.

The Doctor frowned. ‘I’m not going to go off and pummel him into a pulp if that’s what you’re worried about.’

‘I know,’ Yaz said, failing to hide her smile at  _ that  _ mental image. ‘I would just never want you to change your morals for me.’

‘Oh Yaz,’ the Doctor said, settling back down into the bed and pulling Yaz against her. ‘I would do anything for you.’ 

(When Yaz got to the station the next morning the man who’d attacked her was already in a cell. He’d been found outside the station earlier that morning, handcuffed to the railings, rambling about blue boxes that appeared out of thin air, with a smiley face drawn on a post-it note and the message ‘for Yaz’ stuck on his chest)

 

5

The Doctor made it to the front door before she pitched forwards and almost headbutted it, Ryan flinging his arms out to catch her before her forehead collided with the wood. 

‘Oh bloody hell,’ Graham said, clumsily sidestepping out the way as Ryan stood on the front steps with the Doctor dangling limp in his arms, unsure of what to do next. 

‘Hang on, let me open the door,’ Graham said, reaching across and taking the keys out of Ryan’s hands, unlocking the door and pushing it open.

Ryan awkwardly caught the Doctor’s legs and lifted her up into his arms, her head dangling off his arm, taking great care in not banging any parts of her against the doorframe as he carried her into the house.

_ I thought you’re meant to carry your new wife bridal-style into the house? Not your new best alien mate.  _

‘Set her down on the couch,’ Graham said. ‘I’m no nurse but I’ll take a look at her.’

‘I think she’s just tired,’ Ryan said, carefully laying her on the sofa as he had done only hours before, the action achingly familiar. Of course his nan had been there then. She’d known what to do. He tucked a pillow under her blonde head anyway, that he could do. 

Graham dithered above her before finally pressing his fingers against her wrist, face screwed up in confusion.

‘Well I can’t make heads or tails of that,’ he said eventually. ‘How many hearts has she got in there, exactly? And also WHAT IS THAT.’

The same golden glow as earlier had appeared on the Doctor’s skin and Graham snatched his hand away as though he was on fire. Ryan couldn’t help but gently press the pads of his fingers against the Doctor’s arm, golden mist swirling around his fingertips. She exhaled it in a soft sigh and the light spiralled up into the air, dissipating somewhere near the ceiling. 

‘She really is an alien,’ Graham said, both men staring up as the last remnants of the light fizzled out of existence.

‘WhereamI,’ mumbled a sleepy voice from below them, and Ryan looked down to find the Doctor blinking blearily up at them. ‘Where’s Bill?’

‘Who’s Bill?’ Ryan asked, and her face scrunched in confusion, clearly still half-asleep. 

‘You’re all right, love,’ Graham said, squeezing her arm reassuringly. ‘You’re back on the sofa.’

‘S’very comfy,’ she said, rubbing her eyes tiredly. ‘Where’s Grace and Yaz?’

Ryan and Graham exchanged a quick, uneasy glance. 

‘Yaz is back home with her family,’ Ryan told her. ‘She said she’d pop round in the morning.’

‘And Grace?’

Neither men could say anything.

‘Go back to sleep, Doc,’ Graham said softly. ‘We’ll talk again in the morning.’

‘Where’s Grace?’

She was persistent, he’ll give her that.

‘Don’t you remember?’ Ryan asked, exhaustion in his voice. 

The Doctor frowned, her eyes red and bleary as she tried to focus. 

‘Carl kicked Tim Shaw off the crane…’

‘You were cross with him about that,’ Ryan said, remembering her furious expression.

‘Then we climbed back down and Grace was - oh.’

The confused-scrunch disappeared as the pieces of her missing memory slotted back into place and she became very still, the room suddenly quiet.

‘Oh,’ she said again, because what else was there to say?

‘Get some sleep, Doc,’ Graham said, placing a folded blanket on her stomach. ‘It’s late. Or early, depending on how you want to look at it.’

‘I’ll see you in the morning,’ Ryan said, as the two men stood up to leave the room.

‘Night,’ she whispered softly, pulling the blanket up over her head and disappearing underneath it. 

(They came downstairs early afternoon to find her curled around Yaz, who she’d apparently let in at some point in the morning, both looking exhausted and watching TV, although the Doctor’s gaze was fixed firmly on Grace’s coat where it still lay over the back of the chair)

 

6

‘You were meant to be keeping an eye on her!’

‘She ran off with Yaz!’

‘Oh for -’

Graham stood up from the armchair he’d been sitting in and grabbed the yellow bag from the floor, already filled with a variety of knick-knacks that he was sure the TARDIS would neither want nor appreciate. At least the Doctor was planning on paying for it herself this time, although sonicing a cash machine had gotten her into a rather heated debate with Yaz about what constituted theft.

Finding the Doctor, even in a place as large as IKEA, was always easy. You just listened for what was making the loudest amount of noise and inevitably you would find the Doctor there too. 

In this instance, the loudest amount of noise was coming from the children’s section, and Graham and Ryan were pleasantly surprised to find the Doctor balancing on a stack of play mats juggling various items in the air, a crowd of delighted children gathered in front of them with their parents looking on in confusion and Yaz filming the whole thing on her phone.

‘Dare I ask?’ Graham said, approaching Yaz.

‘A little girl was crying so the Doctor started juggling to cheer her up. It escalated from there.’

‘Ah.’

‘How many things is she juggling?’ Ryan asked, snapping a quick pic. 

‘At last count it was about 13. The kids keep throwing things in so I think we’re up to 15 or 16 now.’

‘That is well cool,’ Ryan grinned. 

‘Hi guys!’ the Doctor yelled excitedly, spotting Graham and Ryan. ‘Did you find a chair?’

Unfortunately, that short interaction was all in took to unbalance her, sending her backwards over the stack of mats, legs in the air, the various soft toys she’d been throwing around falling like snow into the delighted children’s outstretched arms, Yaz and Ryan unable to contain their laughter. 

She popped back up again fairly quickly with a grin, racing over to her friends and dropping a toy shark into the bag. 

‘Find a chair?’

‘Yes. We need to pick it up from downstairs. It’s a really nice one so no landing your TARDIS on it this time!’

The Doctor pouted, then immediately grinned manically again as a new idea took her. 

‘Do they have sofas here?’

‘We’re not gonna fit a sofa in my car,’ Yaz protested. 

‘Your car?’ the Doctor smiled slyly. ‘Who said anything about it going in the car?’

Watching the TARDIS materialise around the Doctor’s new purple sofa was the second coolest thing Ryan had seen that day. 

 

7

‘Over 2000 years and this has literally never been an issue for me.’

‘Keep your head still.’

‘Even when I had massive curly hair in the 70’s this never happened.’

‘I mean it, keep your head still.’

‘It really hurts!’

‘I know, but seriously,  _ keep your head still.’ _

The Doctor pouted and rested her chin on her knees. She was sat in the bathtub with Yaz detangling bits of twigs, leaves, mud and dirt from her blond hair. Not that you could tell it was blond, it was more a dirty brown colour at this point.

‘Just be lucky it’s short,’ Yaz said, noticing her friend’s downtrodden expression. ‘If it were me I’d probably have had to cut it.’

The Doctor looked scandalised. ‘Not the hair!’ she said. ‘I’ve always been very attached to my hair. I mean your hair is nice too, but I like my hair. Still kind of annoyed it isn’t ginger, but yellow is a good colour too, reminds me of Rose, although she used to dye her hair.’ She frowned. ‘Is my hair dyed?’

Yaz lifted what she could see of the blond to inspect the Doctor’s roots. ‘Uh, yeah. Looks like it, you’ve got brown coming through. Don’t you dye it?’

The Doctor shook her head. ‘Nah, it came through like this when I regenerated. Is it coming out?’

‘Is what coming out?’

‘The dye? Will I have to redo it?’

It was at moments like these that Yaz remembered that the Doctor used to be a man. She still wasn’t 100% sure how that worked, but was happy to just roll with it.

‘No, the stuff I’m using won’t get the dye out.’

‘Good,’ the Doctor said happily, resting her chin on her knees again as Yaz reapplied conditioner and tugged the comb through her hair, dislodging a hard ball of mud that had become tangled in it.

‘How’s your head?’ Yaz asked.

The Doctor wrinkled her forehead experimentally, then winched. ‘Still sore,’ she muttered, moodily. 

They’d been racing through a forest when a stray energy blast had hit the Doctor’s leg. She’d tripped over a branch and had fallen flat on her face in the mud, rolling down into a ditch and smacking her head against a rock, knocking herself out. Ryan had managed to roll her over and clear her mouth and nose so she didn't suffocate and fortunately the aliens that were chasing them hadn’t spotted them in the ditch and had left, giving them a clear path back to the TARDIS where Graham and Ryan had half carried/half dragged her into the bathroom and left her with Yaz. 

The Doctor looked so miserable sat in the bathtub that Yaz felt her heartstrings pull.

‘Hey, it’s okay,’ she said. ‘I’ve got most of it out already, literally almost finished. You warm enough?’

The Doctor nodded, running her fingers through the soapy bubbles. The result of the knock to her head had jumbled her brain a tad and Yaz suspected she probably had a mild concussion. She’d been covered in mud when she’d started to come to and Yaz had managed to convince her to remove her muddy clothing and get into the tub so she could tackle the mess on her head. The Doctor had been totally unabashed in stripping down completely in front of Yaz and sinking down into the warm water. Whether this was a result of her concussion, or whether she was more confident around Yaz now, she wasn’t sure. 

‘Okay, I’m done,’ Yaz said, tipping a bowl of water slowly over the Doctor’s head to make sure it was completely free of any mud or dirt. 

She held up a giant towel as the Doctor awkwardly climbed out of the bath and wrapped herself up in it. Yaz laughed, she couldn’t help it.  With her pouty face, wet hair and humongous towel, the Doctor looked almost like a sullen child. 

‘Don’t look so hard done by,’ Yaz said. ‘At least you’re not cold and covered in mud anymore.’

 

8

Yaz spots the Doctor immediately. She’s lying across Graham’s front garden wall with her hands behind her head, eyes looking up into the night sky. It’s cold but she’s in her shirtsleeves and waistcoat and hasn’t seemed to notice.

Yaz tucks the parcel of fish and chips under one arm and gently taps the Doctor on the forehead to get her attention.

‘You comfy?’

‘Not really, could do with a cushion.’

The Doctor sat up and experimentally sniffed the air, grinning when she spotted the bundle in Yaz’s arms. 

‘You’ve brought chips.’

‘I have, got a text from Ryan saying none of you had eaten. What are you doing out here? They being nice to you?’

‘Yeah, course,’ the Doctor said, looking shocked at even the possibility that they  _ weren’t  _ being nice to her. ‘Just - you know.’

She pointed up at the sky, her expression dejected. Yaz followed her gaze. It was a cloudless night and the stars above were brilliant, shining ethereally in the sky. 

‘You missed the stars,’ Yaz said softly. 

The Doctor shrugged. ‘Little bit, yeah. I’m also worried about my TARDIS, all on her own up there. I hope she’s alright, although we do need to have a serious discussion about why she threw me out when I was newly-regenerated. I mean crashing is pretty standard but actually getting chucked out is a new one.’

Yaz only understood a couple of words in that ramble so she nudged the Doctor with her arm in what she hoped was a comforting gesture.

‘You coming in? You’re freezing.’

‘Yeah,’ the Doctor said, still looking up mournfully at the stars.

Graham and Ryan were happy to see her, but they didn't miss the resigned way the Doctor kicked off her too-big boots in the hallway. She’d balled the ends up with newspaper, Yaz noticed. 

‘You alright, Doc?’ Graham called to her. ‘Made you a coffee. With ridiculous amount of sugar, just the way you like it.’

‘And I grabbed some biscuits so you can pick a new favourite,’ Ryan said, remembering the conversation the night before when she’d bitten happily into a Jammy Dodger and immediately been miserable because it didn't taste the way she thought it would. The way it was  _ supposed  _ to taste.

Yaz tucked her arm into the Doctor's who was now smiling happily. 

‘See?’ she said softly. ‘We’re all in your corner.’

The Doctor gave Yaz a half-hug squeeze around her waist, and Yaz was suddenly struck with a pang of just how much she would  _ miss  _ this insane, impossible woman who’d fallen from the stars.

 

9

Yaz woke up in the night screaming herself hoarse from whatever nightmare had plagued her, the last few dregs of her dream already slipping away yet still managing to leave her shaken and scared.

She heard noises from the hallway and then all three of her friends were bursting into her room, led by the Doctor who was brandishing her sonic screwdriver.

‘Who is it what’s going on?’ she yelled, scanning the whole room dramatically. 

‘Nothing,’ Yaz stammered out, knees drawn up to her chest. ‘Everything’s fine.’

The Doctor gave her a curious look but she did turn the sonic off. She had obviously thrown herself out of bed as she was dressed in a baggy t-shirt that stopped mid-thigh and her hair was messed around her face, bleary eyed and confused. Ryan and Graham were both in t-shirts and pyjama bottoms and Ryan had succeeded in pushing past the Doctor into the room.

‘Everything alright, Yaz?’ he asked, looking around as though he expected someone to jump out at him.

‘Yeah, sorry. Didn't mean to wake you.’

‘I get bad dreams too, Yaz,’ Graham said from the doorway, everyone’s grandad. ‘I started playing music when I went to sleep, gentle stuff like Mozart or Beethoven. Really helped.’

‘Thanks, Graham,’ Yaz said, touched, because that was actually sound and caring advice.

‘You had a bad dream?’ the Doctor looked both astonished and offended, furious that Yaz would even  _ consider  _ having nightmares whilst under her care.

‘You need anything?’ Ryan asked.

Yaz shook her head and he gently nudged the Doctor’s arm. ‘Come on, let’s get back to bed. I’m sure Yaz wants us to get out of her room now.’

Ryan Sinclair - what a star.

‘You okay if I stay for a bit?’ the Doctor asked, and suddenly there’s nothing Yaz wants more in the world, so she nods.

Graham and Ryan close the door softly behind them and the Doctor slips into bed next to Yaz, leaving her sonic on the bedside table next to Yaz’s phone. She’s warm and soft and smells like clean laundry and something distinctly  _ her  _ that Yaz can’t place, but when she slips an arm experimentally around Yaz’s shoulders it’s all Yaz can do to not snuggle down into her.

Hell, of course she’s going to snuggle into her. She has a massive crush on her. 

‘Everything alright?’ the Doctor whispered softly. ‘Anything you want to talk about?’

Yaz shook her head. ‘No, really. I get nightmares a lot, ever since I was little.’

‘Ah.’

There’s a quiet contemplative silence for a while, in which Yaz wonders if she would be able to wiggle closer into the Doctor’s side and if her friend would mind if she did.

‘I get nightmares too,’ the Doctor admits after a while.

‘I didn't even realise you sleep,’ Yaz said, smiling softly.

‘I do sometimes. Sneakily, when you lot aren’t looking. Why are you so far away? Get over here.’

Yaz (more than happily) allowed herself to be pulled tighter into the Doctor’s side and they burrowed down under the duvet, Yaz wrapped up in the Doctor’s arms. 

‘You don’t have to stay, you know,’ Yaz said, hating herself for it but feeling as though she had to give the Doctor an out if she wanted one.

‘Do you want me to leave?’

‘No.’

‘Well then.’

There was quiet again and Yaz could feel the Doctor lightly catching Yaz’s hair between her fingers and twisting gently, as though she was experimenting with the texture.

And when Yaz woke up in the morning and the Doctor’s head was on her chest and her arm was slung over her waist it took everything in her to not just die at the adorableness of the situation. 

 

10

Ryan thinks he can take a lot. He’s a strong man. Nothing tends to phase him or frighten him anymore and if it does he just takes a leaf out the Doctor’s book and stands up to it. When Yaz told him she was gay it didn't surprise him or, indeed, bother him. They were children at the time, barely eight years old, but Yaz seemed so sure of the fact that he never doubted her then and hadn’t doubted her since. Love is love. She can love who she wants as long as she’s happy. Funny how children just accept these things.

That doesn’t mean he isn’t surprised when he walks into the console room late one night to retrieve the jacket he left in there earlier in the evening, only to find the Doctor pressed up against the time rotor, shirts and bra abandoned to the floor with Yaz in her underwear holding her there as she kisses and bites at the Doctor’s throat, the blonde’s breathy moans filling the air.

He knew Yaz was gay, he’d always been a bit on the fence about the Doctor though.

_ Not anymore,  _ he thought to himself, turning and running away sharpish before either of them saw him. 

 

11

‘Do you think he saw us?’ Yaz whispered against the Doctor’s skin when the sound of Ryan’s footsteps had faded away.

‘More than likely,’ she whispered back. 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for everyone's lovely messages! Prompts in here include: 
> 
> Emalina74- who wanted to see some Yaz at work action 
> 
> ohcaptainswanmycaptainswan - who (like me) wants more 'so where did they all sleep?' fic set during Rosa. 
> 
> Enjoy!

12

Ryan was fast learning that the Doctor’s pockets were basically full of snacks.

Sure, Graham had his sandwiches, but the Doctor’s coat was practically a candy store. It was full of sweets, biscuits, energy bars, chocolate, every item that would send a child hyperactive; the Doctor had in her coat. 

It came in handy for moments like these, when a freak snowstorm had cut off the Doctor and Ryan from the others and they’d had to take refuge in a cave, hunkered down in their coats to keep warm, munching on some energy bars to keep their strength up while the Doctor tried to keep him awake with a story about the time she met Charles Dickens. 

‘Don’t suppose you’ve got a blanket in there?’ Ryan asked, a violent shiver wracking through him.

‘Ooh I might do, actually,’ the Doctor said, digging around in her pockets until she’d pulled (not a blanket) but a king sized  _ duvet  _ out of one of the pockets, flinging it over her and Ryan happily.

‘How  _ on earth…’  _ Ryan began.

‘You’ve seen the TARDIS, right?’ the Doctor said, eyebrow raised. ‘Dimensional engineering. They’re bigger on the inside.’

‘You got it in a charity shop!’

‘Yeah, pockets were boring though. So I made them bigger.’ 

There was a pause while Ryan contemplated this, the warmth of the duvet and the Doctor’s warm body next to him already warming him up.

‘Can you do mine, too?’ 

 

13

Graham and Ryan had taken the Doctor out for lunch.

She’d timed their visit home a bit wrong and had landed on a day when Yaz was meant to be working a shift, so while Yaz had gone off to do that she’d bounced around Graham’s living room until finally he’d had enough and had dragged her out of the house with Ryan to get some food.

Except, of course, trouble hung around the Doctor like a bad smell and it hadn’t taken long before a fight had broken out between two other customers of the restaurant they were currently in, the Doctor already jumping to her feet only to be tugged back down again by Ryan and Graham.

‘Let the police handle it,’ Ryan said. ‘I don’t want you getting a black eye.’

‘But I might be able to talk them down!’ the Doctor protested, fidgeting against Ryan’s grip.

Graham eyed the empty bottles surrounding the two men. ‘I don’t think that’s likely, Doc,’ he said. 

The police arrived quickly and two officers dashed inside, stepping between the two men. Ryan heard a familiar voice shout: ‘Sir, SIT DOWN,’ before there was a larger commotion. One of the men swung for the officer who had given the command, and in no time at all she’d flipped him onto the floor and was pulling his arms behind his back to cuff him.

‘That’s Yaz!’ Graham yelled.

Yaz looked up, startled at the sound of her name, to spot her three friends sat at their little table, watching what was going on.

Ryan looked impressed, Graham looked concerned and the Doctor looked a strange mixture of extremely flustered and maybe a little bit turned on, if it was even possible for her mad alien bestie to have thoughts of  _ that  _ nature. 

It wasn’t until later, when Yaz had rejoined them in the TARDIS and was getting proud slaps on the backs from Ryan and Graham, that she noticed the Doctor couldn’t meet her eyes and the tips of her friend’s ears were a rather alarming shade of red. She waited until Ryan and Graham had dashed off to get their coats, ready for their next adventure, before making her move.

‘Um, Doctor,’ Yaz said, sidling up to the alien and pressing gently against her side, the Doctor jumping back as though she was on fire. ‘Are you okay?’

‘Yes! Defo. Always okay, me. Well I say always. Maybe most of the time okay. Usually okay. Mostly okay? I do alright, I think. Are you okay? Good day? Bad day? Busy day? I love hearing about people’s days. Tell me about your -’

Yaz cut her off before the Doctor could continue her frantic ramble, pressing the blonde up against the console with her lips firmly on the Doctor’s and her hands either side of her face, feeling the Doctor’s lips move against hers as her body relaxed under her hands.

‘Oh,’ the Doctor said, gasping softly when she pulled away, breathing hard, their foreheads pressed together. ‘ _ That’s  _ what I was feeling. I couldn’t tell.’

‘I can flip you, if you like,’ Yaz whispered.

The Doctor swallowed. Hard. 

 

14

Graham was asleep and snoring away when the Doctor got back to the motel, but Ryan and Yaz were still awake, sitting cross legged on the bed and excitedly talking to each other about their evening exploits. They’d found food from somewhere and there was a bag of chips on the bed, the smell lingering in the air and making the Doctor’s mouth water. 

‘I swear, Martin Luther King! He shook my hand!’

‘Wow! Time travel is the best! I’m kind of glad the TARDIS brought us - DOCTOR!’

‘What?’ the Doctor said, startled as Yaz threw herself off the bed and ran towards her, tugging at the collar of her shirts. Graham jumped awake behind them and flung himself upright with his arms raised, as though ready to karate chop someone should the need arise.

‘Did someone try and  _ strangle  _ you?’ Yaz asked, fingers worrying at the Doctor’s neck, the purple and blue bruises already forming on her pale skin.

‘Oh. Yeah. Happens. I’ve got quite a boisterous personality, doesn’t go down well with everyone,’ the Doctor said, shrugging.

‘You alright, Doc?’ Graham asked, looking alarmed.

‘I’m fine! Not the first time someone’s tried to strangle me, definitely won’t be the last.’

She caught Yaz’s fingers and gently rubbed her thumb reassuringly over the back of Yaz’s hand before letting it fall back to her side, dashing excitedly over to the bed. 

‘You got chips?’

‘Yeah, Graham went out and got them,’ Ryan said. ‘He gets grumpy if he doesn’t eat regular meals. We saved you some.’

The Doctor sat happily crossed-legged on the bed, tucking into the bag while Ryan, Yaz and Graham exchanged uneasy looks. The Doctor looked up, caught the glances, and frowned at them.

‘What?’

‘Oh nothing, Doc,’ Graham said. ‘I’ve just never seen anyone act so blasé after getting strangled.’

‘Occupational hazard,’ she said brightly, munching on a chip. ‘The bruises will be gone by the morning.’

‘Is this what you do then?’ Yaz asked, cautiously. ‘You travel through time righting wrongs and stopping time bandits from changing history?’

‘Time bandits? Brilliant! And sometimes, not always. There’s a lot of fun involved too,’ the Doctor said, inspecting their artwork on the wall. Someone, probably Ryan, had added a little drawing of the TARDIS hurtling through space. 

‘How old are you?’ Ryan asked suddenly, and was immediately told off by Yaz and Graham for asking personal questions.

‘You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,’ the Doctor said with a grin.

‘Cause you look like you’re in your thirties but your eyes are so much older,’ Ryan said.

‘Ryan!’ Graham protested. ‘That is enough! Your nan raised you better than that. So sorry, Doc.’

‘It’s alright,’ she said. ‘You should never apologise for being observant, or on behalf of someone else. And yes, Ryan, I’m not in my thirties. I’m slightly older than that.’

‘Fourties?’

‘Slightly higher.’

‘Well there’s no way you’re fifty-something.’

‘Higher still.’

‘You’ve gotta be kidding,’ Graham said, forgetting his earlier annoyance at Ryan. 

‘You should have seen my last body, I had grey hair!’

‘See, when you say stuff like that, I remember you’re an alien,’ Yaz said thoughtfully.

‘Does the dress sense not give it away?’ Ryan teased her, earning himself an indignant ‘oi!’ from the Doctor.

‘Also, speaking of sensitive topics, where are we all sleeping this evening?’ Graham asked, yawning. ‘Cause I reckon it’s gotta be pushing midnight and I’m knackered.’

Four pairs of eyes examined the two-bedroomed room thoughtfully and the Doctor shrugged and finished her bag of chips, giving the last one to Yaz who munched on it happily. 

‘I don’t sleep so decide amongst yourselves.’

‘What - at all?’ Yaz asked.

‘Well, sometimes. Not often. Although I am feeling a bit more knackered than usual. I’ve not really had a chance to recover from regenerating! Always seems to happen right in the middle of an alien invasion. S’really annoying.’

‘That would certainly explain the manic energy you have, Doc,’ Graham said. ‘Sleep deprivation will do that to you.’

 

Yaz woke up in the dark. The boys had graciously allowed her to have one of the beds to herself and were top-and-tailing on the other one, almost synchronizing their snoring. The sheets were thin and Yaz shivered a little, drawing her knees up to her chest as she tried to keep warm.

She heard pages rustling and peered down over the side of the bed to find the Doctor lying on the floor with one of those terrible romance novels from the motel desk in her hands, face scrunched up in confusion. Her shoes and socks were tucked under the desk and she’d slipped her braces down her shoulders, using her coat as a pillow folded neatly under her head. 

‘Why are you on the floor?’ Yaz asked, quietly so as not to wake the two men. Although at this point she was pretty sure she could have started singing and they wouldn’t have noticed. 

‘Oh, hey!’ the Doctor said cheerily, placing the book on her chest. ‘You okay?’

‘Yeah, bit cold. Why are you on the floor?’

‘Well I was on the chair but it’s really uncomfortable so I got on the floor,’ the Doctor replied, as though this was perfectly acceptable behaviour. 

‘Do you want to share with me?’ Yaz asked, the words spilling from her lips before she had a chance to think it over. Maybe the Doctor would be able to warm her up.

‘You sure?’ her friend replied uncertainly. ‘I wouldn’t want you to be uncomfortable.’

‘Why would I be uncomfortable?’

‘I dunno, I have been told that I wriggle around a bit.’

‘Just get in.’

The Doctor picked herself up from the floor and scooted under the covers with Yaz, her bare foot brushing against the younger woman’s leg.

‘You’re freezing!’ Yaz protested. ‘How are you not cold?’

‘Don’t feel the cold that much,’ her friend said with a smile. ‘You said you were cold though, need a hug? I think I might be a hugger this time around.’ 

‘Seriously?’

‘Can’t have a cold Yaz!’

And then warm arms were wrapped around her and Yaz stopped protesting. Despite the coldness of her feet, the other woman was warm and soft and smelt so damn good and Yaz tried not to be embarrassed when she found that she was trying to burrow more into the Doctor to get every last bit of heat she could. 

'Better?’ the Doctor whispered, tugging the sheets up over them.

Yaz hummed happily in response and the Doctor chuckled quietly. 

 

It was Ryan that found them in the morning curled around each other, fast asleep and dead to the world. It was also Ryan who woke everyone up and ruined the peaceful moment when he tripped over Yaz's discarded shoe and crashed into the desk on his way to the bathroom. 

Yaz, who'd actually been awake but had been trying to work out  _ why  _ she was enjoying being held by the Doctor so much, was not impressed at the interruption. 

 

15

The open bedroom-door  policy had been instigated a few weeks prior after Ryan had been infected by a Slovien slug and hadn’t wanted to wake the Doctor up because he didn't think it was ‘that bad’ and since she hardly ever slept he didn't want to ‘risk her getting mad at me’ the one time she actually did.

The Doctor had given him a stern talking to (once she’d picked him off the floor and saved his life) and from then on all members of Team TARDIS were allowed to come and bother her no matter what time of night it was, whether she was asleep or not. 

This was a reassurance to Yaz who had woken up vomiting not long after that incident, although that had been due to a suspect stew rather than an alien slug, but the cuddles she’d received were most welcome and after that she’d found herself in the Doctor’s bedroom more often than not on a quiet night, talking quietly to each other or reading.

A muffled voice called ‘come in!’ after her quiet knock on the door, and Yaz snuck quietly into her friend’s room, the floorboards creaking slightly under her toes. She wasn’t sure if Ryan and Graham knew that the two of them tended to cuddle up together nowadays, but wanted to avoid any awkward questions nonetheless.

The Doctor was lying away from her in her massive four-poster bed, the lights around the bedframe lit up and bathing the room in a soft glow, but she turned her head to smile at Yaz as the younger woman clambered in beside her, rolling over to face her with a book in her hand. 

‘Hiya. Another nightmare?’ she asked softly, inching forwards so she could press Yaz against her side. 

‘I think so,’ Yaz replied. She never remembered her nightmares, only the terror that followed when she’d woken up, her chest tight and breathing ragged. The Doctor had seemed to understand this and somehow always knew what to do to calm her friend down.

‘I can read some of this to you, if you like,’ the Doctor said. ‘Complete history of the Renonan artworks of Klom, probably send you straight to sleep.’

‘That sounds great, can you read it in their language though?’ Yaz asked. This was another favourite part of her sleepovers with the Doctor. Despite the fact that her alien friend spoke perfect english around them, she seemed to know almost every language in the cosmos and could produce the most amazing sounds when she spoke them, sounds it would be impossible for any human to make.

For some reason though, this request made the Doctor laugh. ‘I don’t think you want that, Yaz,’ she said. ‘The Klom language isn’t like most others, it’s a bit different.’

Yaz grinned. She lived for these moments. ‘I’m ready.’ 

‘If you’re sure…’

The Doctor pulled Yaz against her so her chest was pressed against Yaz’s back, Yaz cosy and safe in her embrace, the bed warm and the pillows soft under her head. 

‘Right then. Don’t say I didn't warn you.’

The words she let out next could only be described as fourty or more angry ducks arguing over who got the last bit of food and Yaz was in hysterics before she’d even finished the first sentence.

‘What was  _ that?’  _ she choked out, breathless from laughter.

‘That was Klom,’ the Doctor said with a chuckle. ‘Remind me to take you there. Fantastic place. Amazing artwork. And they all resemble giant ducks.’

‘What was it you just read to me, in English?’ Yaz asked, trying to muffle the giggles that threatened to rise up again. 

‘“The importance of Riverian architecture cannot be forgotten when one considers the impact the Lopians had on the production of renaissance pieces from this era”,’ the Doctor read. ‘Would you like me to read the next sentence? You ready?’

‘I was born ready,’ Yaz said, bracing herself. 

‘QUACKquackquackQUACKquaCkquACKquack.’

Yaz couldn’t stop laughing for a solid ten minutes, during which time Graham banged on the wall and told the two of them to ‘stop making duck noises in the middle of the night!’

 

16

The gala had gone fairly pear-shaped fairly quickly.

In fairness to the Doctor she’d had no idea that their host, the president of Luranily, was being targeted by a race of alien assassins who had been paid to murder her. The Doctor had just wanted to give her fam a good time which, up until ten minutes ago, they’d been having.

But now the Doctor was ripping a good chunk of her red dress off to create a temporary bandage to wrap around the deep cut in Graham’s leg, sustained when the assassins had burst into the room sending tables and chairs flying, Yaz and Ryan had taken refuge under a table on the other side of the room, and the president was being held hostage in the middle of the dance floor by an assassin with a knife to her throat as they argued with their client over a communicator. Apparently the transfer of money hadn’t gone through as expected. Typical. 

‘Got a plan, Doc?’ Graham asked, winching as the Doctor tied a knot tightly over the wound on his leg. 

‘Don’t need one,’ she whispered. ‘Look up.’

Graham did so. The ceiling was covered in bright blue lights, twinkling and flashing against the gold and finery of the ballroom’s high ceiling.

‘Best defence system in the galaxy,’ the Doctor said, peering around the side of their makeshift shelter (two tables and a chair stacked haphazardly together) to catch Yaz’s eye. ‘It’ll kick in in a sec.’

Graham could see Yaz and Ryan looking at the two of them, Ryan looking worried when he saw the blood seeping through Graham’s grey trousers, Yaz looking annoyed that she couldn’t have at least one normal date night with her alien girlfriend and their friends.

‘What does this defence system do, exactly?’ Graham asked as the Doctor, reassured that Ryan and Yaz were okay, sat back down next to him, waving the sonic (which he could only assume she’d had in her bra this whole time) over his leg. 

‘It’s intelligent. Basically an AI system. Scans the room constantly, picks up on intruders or people who weren’t invited, targets the movement centers of their brain and freezes them.’

‘People who weren’t invited?’ Graham said, looking worried.

‘Don’t worry,’ the Doctor said with a wink. ‘I pulled some strings. You lot are on the guest list too.’

A sudden gasp and movement caught their attention and they looked up to see the alien assassins frozen in spot, the president maneuvering herself crossly out from under her captor’s grasp as her team of private security rushed in to tackle the assassins to the floor. 

Yaz and Ryan darted out and raced towards them, Ryan flinging himself to his grandad’s side to assess the damage and Yaz flinging her arms around her girlfriend’s neck.

‘Why does this keep happening?’ Yaz yelled crossly.

‘It’s like someone out there has it out for us!’ Ryan said.

‘Well if you’d all taken my suggestion to go for a nice quiet walk somewhere this wouldn’t have happened!’ Graham said, as the Doctor and Ryan helped him off the floor, the president’s security already ushering all remaining guests out of the ballroom.

‘Well it would of,’ the Doctor protested. ‘We just wouldn’t have been here. And Ryan wouldn’t have gotten that snog from the Trenalor!’

‘Don’t remind me,’ Ryan said, hands over his face. 

‘It’s your fault for shaking its tentacle,’ the Doctor told him. ‘That’s the highest level of intimacy in Trenalor culture.’

‘Ha! You got snogged by a squid,’ Yaz said, grinning. 

The TARDIS hummed softly as they clambered inside, the Doctor and Ryan heading off to the medical room while Yaz expertly manipulated the controls to send them into the Time Vortex. Dating the Doctor had its perks, and the TARDIS seemed to have taken a shine to her.

She rejoined them in their little living room where Ryan was getting his grandad comfortable on the sofa, his injured leg bandaged up and no doubt coated in the Doctor’s magical healing cream.

‘Movie night?’ Ryan suggested, flinging himself down on the other end of the sofa, pulling a blanket down from where it lay draped over the side to cover himself. 

‘Ooh we’ll need popcorn!’ the Doctor said excitedly, dashing off to the kitchen.

‘Yaz…’ Graham warned her and she sighed and pulled herself out of the armchair she’d just got comfy in.

‘I know, I remember what happened last time.’

Fire. Fire had happened last time.

The Doctor wasn’t making popcorn when Yaz arrived in the kitchen. In fact she was leaning against the kitchen counter in her ruined and ripped red dress with her arms crossed across her chest as though she was waiting for Yaz.

‘Decided to wait for adult supervision?’ Yaz said teasingly.

‘Something like that,’ the Doctor replied, a glint in her eye. And suddenly her hands were on Yaz’s hips and Yaz was being lifted onto the counter, the Doctor standing inbetween her legs with a wicked grin on her face.

‘Sorry we didn't get our proper date night,’ the Doctor said, apologetically. 

Yaz kissed her slowly, her hands tangling in the Doctor’s hair as she pulled her against her, the Doctor’s hands tightening on her hips.

‘That’s okay,’ Yaz whispered. ‘I’ve had another idea.’

She reached for the hem of the Doctor’s ruined dress, pushing it slowly upwards while the Doctor swallowed, her eyes black.

‘I prepare food on there!’ Ryan yelled from the doorway, one hand flinging across his eyes as he blindly groped his way back down the corridor.

‘Whoops…’

 

17

The Doctor picked up the small green book from where it had fallen out of Ryan’s pocket, clattering on the TARDIS floor.

‘You dropped this!’ she yelled after him, inspecting the book thoughtfully. It had fallen open on a page full of tally marks and for a moment she’d worried the Silence were back. 

Then she saw ‘scronch counter’ written in Ryan’s messy scrawl at the top of the page.

‘“Scronch counter”?’ she said, confused as Ryan snatched the book back out of her hand, unknowingly scronching her face.

‘It’s nothing, just a game,’ Ryan said, pulling a pen out of his pocket and marking off a small black line.

‘I love games!’ the Doctor said excitedly, following Ryan out the doors with a spring in her step. ‘How do I play?’

‘Just keep being you, Doc,’ Graham said. ‘And don’t ever change.’

‘Aw.’

  
  
  
  
  



	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is a bit more whump happy, and they're more like little short stories than drabbles but I hope you enjoy! The last drabble may be a bit OOC but it was a plot bunny I couldn't get out of my head so don't hate me!
> 
> Prompt in this chapter is from PrettyKitty who wanted to know what would happen if Thirteen tried glasses on and realised she actually needed them to see. 
> 
> Everyone else, I have your prompts and I'm working my way through! No-one will get missed, pinky promise :)

 

18

‘Seriously, it’ll take seconds. Doesn’t hurt and the effects are permanent. No need to wear glasses ever again.’

‘You are not sticking bugs in my eyes!’

‘They’re just messing around,’ Yaz assured the confused staff in the opticians, who had started to give Ryan and the Doctor strange looks at their unusual interaction. ‘No bugs are going in anyone’s eyes.’

The Doctor pouted but was quickly distracted by a pair of granny glasses that she instantly stuck on her face, the lenses round and too large for her face. 

‘These are rubbish,’ she said crossly. ‘No difference at all.’

‘The display glasses are clear frames, madam,’ one of the shop assistants said. ‘But we do have some basic prescription glasses over there if you’d like to give them a go.’

The Doctor darted off excitedly to the display case the assistant had indicated, immediately grabbing an assortment of glasses and plonking herself in front of the mirror to test them out.

‘What do you think about these?’ Ryan asked, turning round to face Yaz with a simple pair of grey frames on his face. He wore contacts usually, but some of their more longer adventures proved hazardous when he ended up wearing them for hours on end and got sore eyes. An emergency pair of glasses seemed like a safe bet. 

‘They make you look old,’ Yaz said, honestly, and Ryan snatched them off again.

‘Oi!’ Graham protested. ‘I’ve got that exact pair!’

‘Yaz! Yaz!’ The Doctor bounded back over to her friend with wired glasses on that were far too small for her face and gave her a slightly mad scientist vibe. ‘What d’you think?’

‘No,’ Yaz told her, but tucked her arm in the Doctor’s when her face fell and guided her back to the glasses, picking up a lightly larger pair of frames to perch on the end of her friend’s nose. ‘Do you even need glasses?’

‘No,’ the Doctor mused thoughtfully. ‘Always used to have them though. Clear frames in them but I’d put them on in dangerous situations that required a lot of thinking so I’d looked smarter. That was when I was in the body that had vanity issues though, you should have seen the hair gel I’d get through.’

‘These?’ Ryan asked, appearing at Yaz’s side again.

‘God no.’

The Doctor picked up another pair of glasses with round lenses and thick black frames, putting them on and giving her hair a flick for good measure. She looked ridiculously attractive in them and the prescription were making her eyes appear slightly larger, that small ring of hazel more prominent in the green.

Then she froze.

‘Everything okay?’ Yaz asked uncertainly. The Doctor frozen was never a good thing.

The Doctor turned to Yaz and scronched her face, peering closely at her friend.

‘One of your eyes is browner than the other,’ she remarked after a moment of intense staring that may have sent Yaz into an arrhythmia. 

‘Uh, yeah.’

‘And you have naturally curly roots.’

‘Also yeah. I straighten my hair.’

‘And you’ve got a little grey hair in your eyebrow.’

‘Oi!’ Yaz’s hand went straight to her eyebrow as she tried to find the offending hair in the mirror.

‘Don’t pull it out!’ the Doctor protested, pulling her hand away. ‘It’s cute!’

‘Looking good, Doc,’ Graham nodded his approval. He was wearing a pair of ladies cat eye style glasses in an obnoxious orange colour that actually made Yaz feel slightly nauseous.

‘You’ve got a mole by your ear!’ the Doctor said, pointing delightedly.

‘These?’ Ryan appeared in the little group with his latest choice of glasses on that finally got nods of approval from Yaz. She heard him mutter ‘thank god for that’ as he walked away to pay.

‘It’s not like I hide it,’ Graham said. ‘Kind of obvious. I like my little mole.’

‘It’s an excellent mole,’ the Doctor told him with a grin. ‘I’ve got one too! On my neck!’ 

‘Wait,’ Yaz said, suddenly realising something. She snatched a pamphlet advertising free NHS prescriptions and pressed it into the Doctor’s hands. ‘Read this for me.’

‘It’s a nice thought but I don’t think aliens are covered, Yaz,’ the Doctor said as her eyes scanned the leaflet.

‘Now take your glasses off and do it again.’

The Doctor frowned in confusion but did as Yaz asked, and her eyebrows immediately shot up into her hairline.

_ ‘Oh.’ _

She put the glasses back on again, then took them off, then put them on, then took them off until eventually she looked up at Yaz. 

‘I think I need glasses…’ she said looking amazed, and also slightly sheepish.

 

19

Relian was a beautiful planet. Lush green grass, a shining sun in the sky, clear skies and a warm climate that made Graham feel as though he was in Europe on holiday. The purple-skinned aliens with three arms rather spoiled that fantasy or, indeed, improved upon it.

‘Come on, fam!’ the Doctor called cheerily as she strode ahead of them, her fingers brushing softly through the long grass. ‘Places to go, people to see, water slides to go on.’

‘Ooh we going to another water park?’ Ryan asked excitedly.

‘Can if you like! There’s loads more we could go to. Oooh which is the one with the mile-long slide? Is it Prealy 1 or 2? Let’s go to both! Sure we’ll find it eventually.’

The TARDIS hummed as they stepped inside and the Doctor hummed in response as she cheerily set the controls, the ship gliding smoothly into the time vortex.

Then it began to chime and the Doctor looked up, confused. 

‘Eh? I feel fine.’

The chiming became more urgent and the Doctor faltered, hands on her stomach.

‘You alright, Doc?’ Graham asked her, her three friends taking a step towards her when she gasped and had to grip onto the TARDIS console.

‘Oh. Oh no. Sorry, really sorry. May have to delay that trip to the water park.’ 

The Doctor fell heavily to her knees, arms wrapped tight around her abdomen, her breathing becoming laboured as she gasped for breath.

‘Doctor! What’s wrong?’ Yaz cried, dropping to her side.

‘Urgh, totally forgot. Relian. Beautiful planet but most of their food has this root in it that I can’t remember the name of. Extremely toxic to - ah!’

She curled tightly into a ball, lips curling in agony, eyes screwed tightly shut as thick black lines began to protrude and climb up her neck.

‘Tell us what to do!’ Graham said. 

The TARDIS lurched to one side and Yaz felt it speed up under her, she gripped the Doctor’s arm tightly as her friend writhed in pain, panting heavily.

‘TARDIS is doing it,’ the Doctor stammered through gritted teeth. ‘I’m really sorry, this isn’t going to be fun to watch.’

Then her eyes rolled back in her head and she started to seize, her body slamming against the TARDIS floor as the ship landed with a heavier thud than normal, the doors flinging open before any of them could reach it.

‘Oh god,’ Graham said. 

‘See where we are!’ Ryan yelled. ‘Where has the TARDIS taken us?’

‘Doctor,’ Yaz cried, tears in her eyes as the Doctor stopped seizing but started to violently twitch her limbs, blood trickling from her nose and ears.

‘Oh god! Someone grab a gurney!’ a familiar voice yelled from outside, and Ryan scooped the Doctor up in his arms as though she weighed nothing and ran through the doors to the waiting trolley and their old friend, Mabli.

‘What happened?’ Mabli asked once the Doctor was strapped down and they were running through the corridors with her, the lights too bright compared to the TARDIS.

‘I think it was something she ate! Some kind of root,’ Graham said. ‘We’ve just come from Relian.’

‘Relian? That looks like a Lenoroot reaction,’ Mabli said, pushing the trolley into a spare room and flinging open drawers to pull out various bits of equipment and medications. ‘She shouldn’t be reacting this badly though.’

‘I think it’s extremely toxic to her species,’ Ryan said. ‘Is she going to be alright?’

‘Do you know what species she is?’ Mabli asked, the Doctor’s back suddenly arching off the bed as her mouth opened in soundless agony.

‘No! She’s never told us! We know she has two hearts.’

‘And an ectospleen!’

‘And she can survive in space for a few minutes! And underwater. She told us what it was called once, a respiratory bypass somethingorother?’

‘Respiratory bypass system. But that’s not enough, loads of species have those,’ Mabli said, pressing leads against the Doctor’s chest, the irregular and frantic beats of her pounding hearts flashing on the screen above the bed, all the readouts in red.

‘She glowed!’ Ryan remembered suddenly. ‘When we first met her, she glowed! She said something about fizzing and regenerating and burning?’

‘Regenerating?’ Mabli’s head shot up. ‘But that’s not possible- she can’t be a… oh!’ she froze, arms out in front of her. ‘She mentioned a TARDIS,’ Mabli gasped. ‘When we first met she was determined to get back to her TARDIS. How did I not remember that? But that’s not possible! And how did you lot even  _ get  _ here? There aren’t any transports planned for today!’

The Doctor groaned below them, panting as she writhed in pain, Yaz trying hard to calm her but failing. 

‘Yeah, we travel in time and space,’ Graham said. ‘Does that help?’

The Doctor went still, slumping against the bed and the readouts flatlined. Yaz let out a choked scream and Ryan grabbed their friend’s arm tightly, squeezing hard. 

‘Do something!’ he begged. ‘Please. We can’t let her die.’

‘Going on the assumption that her species is able to absorb this, if my guess is right which it can’t be, then I think this will work, but we need to inject it at the same time.’

Mabli pressed a syringe into Yaz’s hand and directed her to stand on one side of the Doctor, Mabli on the other with her index and ring finger stretched to indicate the two injection sites over the Doctor’s hearts. 

‘When I say, depress the plunger,’ Mabli said, and she raised her arm to position the needle, the size of it making Ryan wince. Yaz copied her and he could see her determined resolve under her tear-streaked face. Sheffield police officers. Made of steel. 

‘Now!’

The two women brought the needles down and pressed down hard, the green-blue liquid inside the syringe disappearing as it was pressed into the Doctor’s chest. 

For a moment or two, nothing happened, and Graham gripped the Doctor’s leg tightly, Ryan and Yaz taking a hand each. Then she gasped and exhaled a black cloud from her lungs, beginning to cough violently.

‘She’s alright,’ Mabli said as the three humans began to panic. ‘I think this is how her species dispel poisons.’

Mabli detached an oxygen mask from the wall and secured it over her nose and mouth, the Doctor’s breathing slowly going back to normal, the readouts on the wall showing the slow beats of her hearts, the colour now a more reassuring blue. She hooked up an infusion of some description, Ryan wincing when she pressed the small cannula into the Doctor’s vein.

‘This is alright,’ she mumbled more to herself than anyone else. ‘It’s aspirin they can’t have.’

‘Is she gonna be alright?’ Ryan asked, squeezing the Doctor’s hand. She still hadn’t opened her eyes but she looked more comfortable and settled, more like she was just asleep.

‘Yes, I think so,’ Mabli said. ‘I’ll keep an eye on her but she’ll bring herself out of it. This is a pain medication but it also works as a mild sedative, should help get her hearts back into a normal rhythm, certainly won’t do her any harm. You three can relax now, you look like you’re either about to collapse or start crying.’

 

‘What species is she?’ Ryan asked when Mabli came back to check her patient later that evening. Yaz was asleep with her head resting on the Doctor’s abdomen and Graham tucked a blanket over her shoulders.

‘She’s a Time Lord,’ Mabli replied. ‘Her race are ancient. People say there were around at the creation of the universe, though no-one really knows if it’s true or not.’

‘That makes sense,’ Graham admitted. ‘She is obsessed with time. You should hear her rant about Back to the Future.’

‘Why did you think it was impossible?’ Ryan asked. ‘You said she couldn’t be the race you thought she was, you said it didn't make sense.’

‘Because they’re all dead,’ Mabli said. ‘All of the Time Lords were destroyed in the Last Great Time War. Their planet burned.’

‘Who were they fighting?’ Yaz asked, blinking blearily up at her. 

‘The Daleks of Skaro.’

That got their attention, and the three humans exchanged uncomfortable glances.

‘Blimey,’ Graham said. ‘No wonder she said it was personal.’

‘And no wonder she threw it into a supernova,’ Ryan agreed.

‘You’ve met the Daleks?’ Mabli said, confused. ‘But that’s not possible either. They were also destroyed in the war. The Daleks and the Time Lords annihilated each other.’ 

‘What was the name of the Time Lord’s planet?’ Graham asked. ‘Her planet, does it have a name?’

‘It does,’ Mabli said, frowning, but I don’t remember it. Gulli-something? Everything I know about the Time Lords I read in nursery rhymes, children’s books. They’re supposed to be a fairytale.’

The Doctor groaned and Mabli gently increased the infusion of pain medication until she settled again, face relaxing.  

‘You should all get some rest,’ she told them. ‘She should wake up in the morning. Let me know if you need anything. I’ll bring you some inflatable beds so you haven’t got to sleep in the chairs.’

 

The Doctor woke up sometime in the night with a loud groan that woke them all up, mumbling against the plastic of the mask as she tried to pull it off her face.

‘You should probably keep that on,’ Graham protested, but Yaz took it off her when she started getting her IV line tangled up in it as well.

‘Yaz?’ she mumbled, blinking up at her friend. ‘Where am I?’

‘You’re on Resus One,’ Yaz said soothingly, gently bringing the Doctor’s hand away from her face and back down to the side of the bed before she noticed the cannula. ‘Mabli’s looking after you, you’re alright.’

‘Why…?’

‘Don’t you remember?’ Ryan asked, perching on the edge of the bed. ‘You collapsed in the TARDIS, after we came back from Relian. The TARDIS brought us straight here.’

The Doctor smacked her lips together, her tongue moving inside her mouth. ‘Lenoroot,’ she realised suddenly. ‘I can taste Lenoroot. Who gave me that?!’

‘I don’t know but don’t you dare try and sit up,’ Graham said when she tried to do just that. ‘Come on you two, we had a plan for this.’

Yaz and Ryan clambered onto the bed, one either side of the Doctor, and stretched out against her so she was sandwiched between the two of them.

‘Oh that’s just not fair,’ the Doctor complained. ‘You know I can’t resist a cuddle.’

‘Go back to sleep,’ Ryan told her firmly. ‘Mabli reckons we should be able to get out of here in the morning.’

‘Don’t want to sleep,’ the Doctor mumbled like a petulant child, her eyes already dropping as exhaustion overtook her. 

‘It’s alright,’ Yaz said, stroking her hair away from her face soothingly. ‘You’re fine.’ 

‘Hey, Doc,’ Graham said, remembering suddenly. ‘What’s your planet called? Mabli said you’re a Time Lord but she didn't tell us the name of your planet.’

‘Shining world of the seven systems,’ the Doctor mumbled sleepily, head pressed against Yaz’s as she curled her fingers in Yaz’s jacket, a soft smile on her face. ‘S’gone now, but that’s where I’m from. My home. Gallifrey.’

‘Where’s it gone?’ Ryan asked, but she was already asleep and didn't answer.

  
  


20

Graham woke up in the night and rolled onto his side, automatically reaching for Grace. 

Then he remembered.

He was never going to sleep next to her again, never feel her hand in his, never kiss her, never hug her, she was just…

Gone. 

A bang and a yelp sounded from downstairs and Graham froze in fright for a second before he remembered the alien currently using his living room to couch surf. He'd offered her the spare room but she hadn't seemed interested it in, flinging herself down onto the sofa instead and falling asleep immediately.

Graham got out of bed and wrapped his old dressing gown around himself, padding softly across the room as he headed towards the stairs. Ryan poked his head blearily out of his room but Graham shooed him back inside again. The Doc wasn't dangerous, just slightly eccentric. 

She was sat on the sofa staring intently at her bare feet when Graham shuffled in and she looked up, a guilty expression in her eyes.

‘Did I wake you? Sorry, fell off the sofa.’

'Are you sure you don't want to use the spare room?’ Graham asked. 'We don't mind.’

'Nah, this is fine,’ the Doctor said, wiggling her toes as though she was experimenting with them.

She looked tired and bleary-eyed. Her hair was mussed around her face and she rubbed her eyes sleepily, blowing the hair out of her face when it fell across her cheek. 

'Fancy a cuppa?’ Graham asked. Grace wouldn't forgive him if he didn't treat their guest with the respect she deserved. She may be a bit barking but she also looked completely miserable at that moment, it wasn't an expression he'd noticed on her face before and he didn't like it.

She looked up at him and Graham knew immediately what she was about to say so he shushed her before she could.

'Don't you say it,’ he warned her. 'Don't you dare. Grace made her choice, she knew the risks and she did it anyway. You told her to leave and she didn't want to so don't you dare try and accept responsibility cause I won't have it.’

The Doctor looked down at her feet again and Graham sighed and awkwardly patted her shoulder. 

'Come on, love. It'll all work out eventually. Grace wouldn't want us to mope.’

Ryan came downstairs then and flopped down next to the Doctor on the sofa, blanket in hand which he half flung over her legs, yawning. 

‘I’ll put the kettle on,’ Graham said, shuffling off into the kitchen. 

There was a tentative knock on the living room window and Ryan and the Doctor sat forward to see Yaz bundled up in her giant fluffy coat waving awkwardly at them.

'Couldn't sleep so I went for a walk and saw your light was on,’ she explained once he’d let her in. 'You don't mind, do you?’

'Course not,’ Graham said, placing down the tray laden with tea things. It was 4am but that was the perfect time for a tea party, right?

The Doctor coughed suddenly and a stream of golden light flowed from her mouth, spiraling up into the air. 

‘Urgh,’ she grumbled, pouring herself a cup of tea and drinking the whole thing in one go, not seeming to notice when the hot liquid burnt the inside of her mouth.

'You alright?’ Yaz asked, shocked. 

'Yeah,’ the Doctor mumbled, pulling her blanket over her head. 'Still regenerating. S'fine, don't mind me. Do you lot give IV bags of tea yet? No? You should, it would speed things up. Coffee too, just imagine.’

She curled into a ball on the sofa and Yaz patted her head, the Doctor positively mewling under her touch.

'Did your parents say anything?’ Graham asked as Ryan and Yaz sat down, Yaz’s hand gently stroking the Doctor’s hair in a gesture so tender it made Graham’s heart lurch. Grace had used to do that for him when he was ill or upset.

‘They didn't even hear me come in,’ Yaz said. 

There was silence for a moment. The sun was just beginning to make its appearance outside the window, the first pale tendrils of light filtering through the glass. Graham spotted the Doctor watching them from under her blanket, fingers flexing and gripping the soft material tightly in her fist. 

‘Where do you go when you die?’ Ryan asked the Doctor, and her eyes slid shut. 

‘Not the bloody Nethersphere that’s for sure.’

‘Doctor,’ Yaz reprimanded her softly and she opened her eyes again, saw the heartache on Ryan’s face and sat up, snuggling herself in between the two of them. 

‘Depends on what you believe, I spose,’ she said. ‘All cultures have their different religions and no-one knows 100% where you go but one of them must have it right.’

‘You mean like Christian or Muslim or Buddhists?’ Graham asked. 

The Doctor rubbed her tired eyes. ‘When I talk about cultures I’m referring to slightly more than just what you’re limited to on planet Earth. Like my lot, for example, believe you go back to the universe. You become a star or a galaxy. You give light or life or hope. But the Dragliens believe you go to the great compost heap in the sky, essentially. And if you’re a Dalek you’re destined for the sewers. I’ve been there. It sucks.’

She tried to reach for another cup of tea but wasn’t able to wriggle herself out from inbetween Graham and Yaz, her energy gone. Graham poured it for her and handed it over. She sipped it gratefully and turned her head to watch the sunrise. 

It was a peaceful moment, but Graham couldn’t stop staring at the back of the Doctors blonde head, desperately trying to hold his tongue. He knew what her answer would be but he had to know, needed to know, needed to hear it fall from her lips.

The Doctor sighed and put her cup down, turning to face him.

‘Just ask me,’ she said softly. ‘Just do it, before you lose the nerve.’

‘I can’t, Doc,’ Graham replied, eyes shining with unshed tears. ‘I know what you’ll say.’

‘Things are only made real when they’re spoken out loud. So ask me, Graham O'Brien.’

Yaz was looking at her in confusion, but Ryan looked like he was starting to understand and he shook his head. ‘I don’t want to hear it,’ he whispered.

‘Braveheart, Ryan,’ the Doctor said softly. She looked up at Graham and he felt his broken heart shrink even more at the expression on her face. She didn't want to say it. She didn't want him to make her say it, but she understood why he had to.

‘Can we go back in time and save her,’ he whispered, so quietly Yaz had to lean in to hear him. ‘When you have your ship? Can we save her life?’

There was silence for a moment and a tear fell down Ryan’s cheek. The Doctor looked at her three new friends, almost strangers united in their grief. Her hearts swelled for them.

‘Do you know what a paradox is?’ she asked, gently. She’d learnt from her years spent with her human companions that a flatout ‘no’ was never enough. They had to understand  _ why. _

‘Sort of,’ Graham admitted, the unshed tears finally spilling down his cheeks. 

‘It’s a logical or apparent contradiction to a fact. That’s what the word means but it means something slightly different when you apply it to time travel,’ the Doctor explained. ‘Now think it through. If I went back in time and saved Grace, you wouldn’t ask me to save her, meaning I never did it, causing a paradox. I’ve seen that, Graham. I’ve seen what happens when you rip a hole in the fabric of space time and it isn’t pretty.’

‘Have you ever done it?’ Ryan asked her and there was silence for a moment.

‘A friend of mine did,’ she responded eventually. ‘Her father died when she was very young. He was hit by a car and she wanted to be there with him at the end, so he didn't die alone, but instead she saved him.’

‘What happened?’ Yaz asked.

The Doctor ripped a hole in her already ruined shirt as an answer. ‘That. More or less. It unsettled the balance of time, let in Reapers to remove the offending cause and heal the wound.’

‘But he was alive? She saved him?’ Graham protested.

The Doctor looked up at him and he saw the answer in her face before she said it.

‘No. He sacrificed himself. He dove back under that car to restore the balance of time. There was no other way.’

‘Your poor friend,’ Yaz said, the realisation of this mysterious woman’s actions suddenly hitting her. ‘Thinking you saved your father then having to watch him die again, but of his own free will.’

‘Do you understand, Graham?’ the Doctor said, getting off the sofa to stand in front of him, peering cautiously into his face with her hands in her pockets. ‘Do you understand why I can’t save Grace?’

‘Yes,’ Graham said. ‘I think I do.’

‘If I could, Graham…’ the Doctor said, grasping his hands tightly, and the endless sadness in her ancient eyes was almost too much for him to bear.

‘I know, Doc,’ Graham replied. ‘And I’m not angry or upset with you, I swear. I understand.’

The Doctor’s legs buckled and she almost dropped to the floor, Graham catching her at the last second, Yaz standing up to ease her back down onto the sofa, positioning her exhausted friend against her side, the Doctor’s head lolling against her shoulder.

‘Go back to sleep,’ Yaz whispered softly, tucking an arm around her. ‘You need it.’ 

Graham squeezed on the end of the sofa. It really wasn’t made to take four people but somehow it wasn’t so bad. He was sat next to his grandson and their new friend Yaz, with their other new friend (who was an alien, unbelievably), asleep again. Grace may not be with him any more, but at least he didn't feel quite so alone.

  
  


21

There was a man between her legs. 

He was a nice man, handsome, kind. He was also an Atroxian which is probably why the Doctor felt slightly attracted to him. His species practically leaked pheromones that not even Time Lords were immune to. That, and the seven Prozian screwdrivers she’d inhaled over the course of the evening were probably part of the reason she’d let him press her body against the wall to kiss her, fingers slowly pushing into her trousers, mouth kissing hotly at her neck. 

Her head was swimming and she wasn’t really concentrating on the Atroxian thrusting slowly in and out of her, his lips at her neck biting gently on the soft skin, hands softly caressing her breasts and coming up to tangle his fingers in her hair. At least he was a considerate lover. 

Her thoughts turned to her three human friends who she’d dropped off on Earth before piloting the TARDIS all the way across the universe to one of the shadiest space bars she knew. They’d tried to comfort her but she hadn’t wanted to hear it, she’d only wanted the solace that strong Prozian liqueur and people who didn't know her name could give her. She didn't care if it was a man or a woman she let love her, the Atroxian had just been the first to come along. What was his name? Treian? Trolan? Something beginning with a T anyway. She was glad he’d already had a room booked when he’d whispered ‘my place or yours?’ into her ear. She really didn't fancy taking him back to the TARDIS. Who knows what She would have thought of it.

‘Do you have two hearts?’ Treian or Trolan asked her, hand gently tracing lazy circles on her chest, feeling them beat under his fingertips.

‘Does it matter?’ she muttered, shifting her hips so he was screwing her deeper, his wordless gasp echoing in her ears. 

‘Not if you don’t want it to,’ he replied, and she kissed him. Gods bless Atroxians. Why he was all the way out here she neither knew nor wanted to know. His people lived on a beautiful world with a golden sky, one of the more benevolent races she’d ever come across. She couldn’t help but wonder why a man such as him was in this tiny pocket of the universe by himself.

‘I can stop if you need me to,’ he said softly, perhaps some part of him sensing that she wasn’t completely focused on  _ this.  _

‘I don’t want you to,’ she responded against his lips, her hands stroking the soft skin on his strong shoulders. She wasn’t even sure if she was attracted to men, she hadn’t been before, but he felt good and he was kind and in that moment exactly what she needed. 

He thrust shallowly into her, his mouth coming to her breast to kiss and tease her nipple, his hand going between her legs to rub at that sensitive nub she’d hardly used. There had been that night with Yaz, but that felt like a long time ago now and it had actually meant something to her, unlike whatever this was. 

She gasped into the air and pushed her hips up, urging him to move faster, harder, deeper. She came with a wordless cry, her inner muscles clenching around him, legs shaking, thinking of Yaz.

 

Yaz on the other hand was sat on her bed at home, not sleeping, trying to forget the agony she’d seen flash across the Doctors face as she’d left the TARDIS. Surely the Doctor knew she couldn’t save everyone. As wonderful and brilliant as she was, there was only one of her and she couldn’t do it all.

At least that little boy hadn’t died alone. At least Yaz had been able to hold him at the end. 

The sound of the TARDIS outside snapped her out of her reverie and Yaz sprung up from the bed, not even bothering to grab her shoes as she left the flat and sprinted down the stairs. 

The Doctor reached for her as soon as Yaz was inside the ship. She looked a mess. Her hair was ruffled, her lips swollen, clothes askew, and there was a hickey on her neck that Yaz didn't really want to know the story behind. She grabbed Yaz and kissed her soundly, fingers tugging gently at the long black hair as her other hand wrapped around Yaz’s waist and pulled her close.

‘You’re drunk,’ Yaz whispered when they broke apart, smelling the alcohol on her breath and tasting it on her lips.

‘I was,’ the Doctor mumbled, lips at Yaz’s neck, hands twisting in her clothes. ‘I metabolise alcohol quickly.’

‘Doctor…’ Yaz breathed as the other woman’s hands made their way underneath the thin material of her pyjama top. ‘What’s going on?’

‘I’m sorry, Yaz,’ the Doctor mumbled, face pressed into her neck. ‘I’m sorry for how I treated you. You know, after.’

_ We can’t do this, it never ends well. I know you want to be with me but it won’t work. I’m sorry, Yaz. _

_ Did last night mean nothing to you? _

_ It meant everything to me. Everything. _

‘I understood your reasons,’ Yaz whispered, tears prickling the corners of her eyes.

‘I was wrong,’ the Doctor said, pulling back to face her, tear tracks down her face. ‘I was frightened and I pushed you away. You made your decision and I should have respected that. I want you, Yaz. I’ve only ever wanted you.’

Yaz reached a hand up to gently wipe the tears from her friend’s cheek, the Doctor pressing her face into Yaz’s hand in response. 

‘Let’s go to bed,’ Yaz whispered, taking the Doctor by the hand and leading her down the corridor towards her room. 

She stripped her friend quickly and quietly and pulled off her own clothes, clambering into bed with her and pulling the sheets up over their heads, holding the Doctor tightly in her arms, the TARDIS dimming the lights.

‘Why couldn’t I save him?’ the Doctor asked in the dark, and Yaz could hear the tears in her voice.

‘You can’t save everyone,’ she whispered. ‘But you try, and that’s the important thing.’

‘What’s the point in trying if I fail?’

Yaz kissed her softly, tasting the salt on her lips. 

‘Because,’ she said gently, pulling away and pressing their foreheads together. ‘Because failure may always be a possibility, but so is success, and your hearts are too kind for you to ever consider that failure may triumph. What was the promise you made to yourself?  _ Laugh hard, run fast, be kind.’ _

‘I let you go,’ the Doctor mumbled against her skin, then she was asleep. 

  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sure this is full of spelling/grammar errors but I wanted to get it out for you guys before going to bed and it's currently five to midnight so goodnight!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this has taken me a bit longer to get up! All of the drabbles in this chapter were half finished and I've only just managed to dust them off and give them an ending :)
> 
> Prompts in this chapter include ThisShipHasSails who wanted more touch telepathy.
> 
> (I have everyone else's written down, you won't be missed!)

22

Yaz hadn’t planned on this, Yaz wasn’t prepared for this, but by all the stars in the universe did Yaz want this.

She gasped up into the air, gripping the sides of the sofa tightly as the Doctor continued doing… whatever it was she was doing with her tongue between her legs. Half of her was desperately trying to focus on the incredible sensations but the other half was terrified that the two men could walk in on them at any moment. They were in the sitting room after all, not exactly private.

The Doctor popped her head up from between Yaz’s legs and gave her a quizzical glance. 

‘We could move this somewhere else if it would make you more comfortable?’

Yaz stared at her in shock.

_ ‘You’re reading my mind? NOW?’ _

‘You know I struggle when I’m distracted,’ the Doctor said with a guilty grin that quickly turned sultry as she moved back down and licked her way up through the slick heat between Yaz’s legs, not breaking her gaze. ‘And I am  _ very  _ distracted right now.’

Yaz pushed her off and pulled herself up from the sofa, awkwardly pulling her jeans back up as she grabbed the Doctor’s hand and dragged her through the corridors of the TARDIS to her room.

This was no time for distractions. 

 

23

‘Will you  _ please  _ keep your head still!’

‘Sorry,’ the Doctor mumbled, pouting petulantly. ‘Just not used to sitting still!’

‘I can tell, but unless you want to end up with a buzz cut you need to stop moving.’

The Doctor sighed but stayed still, gaze fixed on something on the floor and Yaz suddenly wished she’d remembered to pick her underwear up this morning.

‘I’m almost done,’ Yaz said, heart softening a little at the sight of her friend’s glum gaze reflected in the mirror. 

The Doctor looked up and caught her eye in the glass, grinning. 

‘You’re a superstar you are. Yaz the superstar, they’ll be writing songs about you.’

‘Who’s they?’ Yaz asked, amused as she carefully trimmed the last few ends of the Doctor’s hair. 

‘Dunno, whoever it is people are referring to when they say “they”. The powers that be or Him upstairs, maybe.’

‘Do you believe in God, or the concept of Him?’ Yaz asked, thoughtfully, testing the weight of the Doctor’s hair in her hand. 

‘Ah Yaz,’ the Doctor said with a guilty grin. ‘You really don’t want me to answer that.’

‘Why?’ Yaz asked, carefully trimming the Doctors fringe away from her face in the style she liked. 

‘Me and gods don’t tend to get along,’ she explained. ‘I’ve met loads and its all tended to end the same way.’

‘Which is?’

The Doctor grinned sheepishly and Yaz decided that if she wanted to keep her religion in one piece she was better off not knowing.

‘Do you believe in anything?’ Yaz asked, standing in front of the Doctor to check her hair length was even on both sides. She’d been shocked when the Doctor had asked her for a trim, but she’d watched her friend blow her hair out of her face in exasperation this past week so wasn’t surprised. 

‘How do you mean?’

‘At my Nani’s wedding, you mentioned your faith. Do you have a god or a deity you believe in?’

The Doctor shrugged. ‘My lot are an arrogant bunch, they tend not to believe that there could be anyone more powerful or above them so no, no deities as such. We believe in things like science, love, hope, the neverending beauty of the universe and the simplicity in the fact that everything dies eventually.’

‘Sounds cheery, your lot,’ Yaz said, running her fingers through the Doctor’s hair with a soft smile.

The Doctor seized Yaz around the waist and pulled her down onto her lap, kissing her cheek softly.

‘We also believe in candyfloss, unicorns and ice cream.’

‘Really?’

‘No, but I could take you somewhere where the people worship a unicorn called The Great Horned One as their deity.’

‘Seriously?’

The Doctor grinned and Yaz recognised that glint in her eye. She was ready for adventure.

‘I could even take you to see The Great Horned One herself, if you fancied it.’

‘You know what?’ Yaz said with a smile, leaning forward to kiss her girlfriend softly. ‘That sounds brilliant.’

 

24

It shouldn’t really have come as a surprise that the Doctor could play the piano. It also shouldn’t really have come as a surprise that the Doctor played piano like the mad woman she was. 

They’d lost her in amongst the crowds at Starport, the massive shopping centre sprawling out for miles. The Doctor has gestimated the mall to be roughly half the size of London and had been very stern with them about not wandering off, before wandering off herself.

‘We’re never going to find her!’ Ryan said, staring around him at the sheer number of people doing their shopping. There were aliens here from all across the galaxy and the three humans pressed themselves against the wall to avoid being caught up in the throng of people. 

‘We could put a message out over the PA or something?’ Graham suggested.

‘We’ll have to find it first,’ Yaz said.

It was then that they heard the music, a thunderous piano sounding from the ground floor. They made their way to the railings that ran along the walkway of the second floor and peered down into the forum where a small crowd had already gathered to listen to the music.

‘Well I’ll be damned,’ Graham said in awe.

The Doctor was playing a duet with an elegant purple-skinned alien. The music was loud and fast but the melody was pleasant and they were clearly having a competition to try and keep up with each other as the music swelled and got impossibly faster. 

‘Now she’s an impressive woman as it is but  _ that  _ is particularly incredible,’ Graham said, admiration across his face. 

‘It’s amazing,’ Yaz breathed, gazing down onto the top of the Doctor’s blonde head as the Time Lord laughed, jostling with the purple-skinned alien to get their hands in the correct places, their fingers flying across the keys so fast it was a blur. 

When the music was finished, the tempo having got to the stage where the music seemed impossible to play and even harder to hear, the crowd erupted into applause and the two pianists stood up to take a bow. As the crowd dispersed the Doctor looked around, clearly looking for her friends, and Yaz and Ryan screamed her name over the railings.

When she looked up her smile was wide and they waited for her to come hurtling up the stairs, out of breath and grinning broadly before they dared to move. 

‘That was incredible,’ Ryan said. ‘Amazing. You didn't say you could play piano.’

‘She probably trained with Mozart or Beethoven,’ Yaz teased, smiling at her.

‘Both, actually!’ the Doctor grinned, tucking her arms into the two younger humans as they continued their walk through the mall. ‘Crazy blokes, pair of ‘em.’ 

‘What even was that?’ Graham asked. ‘That music, I didn't recognise it.’

‘It’s called Circus Galop,’ the Doctor said. ‘Although it’s also known as the Death Waltz. Piano piece for four hands, almost impossible to play.’ 

‘So of course, you did it perfectly,’ Yaz said, but there was pride in her voice and the Doctor smiled at her.

‘Oh good, so you didn't hear all the bum notes, there was a few.’

 

25

Team TARDIS loitered against the doors of the kitchen, watching as the Doctor thoughtfully sniffed her curry before adding more pepper from the small shaker at her side. Her coat was hanging over the chair and she’d pushed her sleeves up, hair tucked behind her ear as she gave the pot a stir, giving it another sniff and seeming satisfied with the aroma.

It had been a nightmare of a day. What had started out as a relaxing trip to the market town of Karden 5 had turned into hours of running and shouting. The Doctor had been grabbed by a bunch of bounty hunters in a case of mistaken identity and by the time they found her she was screaming herself hoarse, black and blue with blood seeping into her clothes as they tortured her for information she didn't have.

She’d snuck off to the bathroom after Ryan had carried her back to the TARDIS and they hadn’t heard from her, or indeed found her, until right now. 

‘Right then,’ Graham whispered to Ryan and Yaz. ‘Who wants to go talk to her?’

‘You do know I can hear you, right?’ the Doctor said, turning to face them with a quirky smile on her face that didn't quite reach her eyes. 

‘What are you up to?’ Yaz asked, joining her at the stove, gesturing out of the Doctor’s eyeline for the two men to come into the room and join her.

‘Making dinner!’ the Doctor said proudly. ‘Does it smell acceptable?’

‘Smells great,’ Yaz said, smiling. The Doctor had insisted that Yaz teach her how to make the Khan Family Curry after she’d been invited round for a second tea at Yaz’s, this time actually staying to eat the food. 

‘As long as it isn’t super spicy this time, Doc,’ Graham checked. ‘I know Yaz has hers with fifteen hundred chillies in it but that’s just too much for me.’

‘Only half a chilli in this one,’ the Doctor reassured him. ‘Not quite Yaz standards of hot but should still give it a kick.’

There was silence for a moment as the Doctor stirred the pot, and eventually she sighed and put the spoon down, turning to face them all with her arms crossed.

‘Just spit it out,’ she said with a resigned expression. ‘Let’s get this over and done with.’

‘We love you, Doc,’ Graham said, and judging from the instant look of shock on her face that was one sentence she wasn’t expecting to hear. 

‘Yeah, we really do,’ Ryan chimed in.

‘Like so much we couldn’t even begin to tell you,’ Yaz said, and the Doctor was suddenly ashamed to find tears prickling the edges of her eyes.

‘Now don’t you dare,’ Graham warned her, already starting to tear up. ‘If you start I’m going to start and then we’re going to be in a right mess.’

‘It’s the chillies they got in my eye,’ the Doctor said unconvincingly, wiping away a tear that was starting to escape and run down her cheek. 

‘Pull the other one,’ Ryan said, and Yaz stepped forward to hug her, the Doctor burrowing her face into Yaz’s shoulder to hide it from the two men.

‘You don’t have to talk to us about it,’ Yaz whispered quietly to her. ‘You don’t have to say anything. We just want you to know that you’re so much more to us than just our friend who travels around in a blue box and eats so much ice cream on leisure planets she needs to go lie down for a bit.’

‘It was all you can eat,’ the Doctor mumbled pathetically into Yaz’s jumper. 

‘And we love you for it,’ Graham said, resting his hand on her back, Ryan hugging the two women tightly. 

‘Just know that you can talk to us about whatever you want, whenever you want,’ Ryan told her. ‘And we’ll never push you to talk about stuff you’re not comfortable about, even though we have  _ so many questions.  _ But we can’t imagine our lives without you in it now, okay?’

The Doctor’s head moved imperceptibly against Yaz and Graham tucked an arm across her shoulder, pausing to wipe away a tear from his own eye as they held their friend. 

‘Also, we talked, and we want to go to a leisure planet with massive water slides and river rapids and roller coasters,’ Ryan said with a grin, and the Doctor lifted her tear-streaked face to smile excitedly at him.

Yaz kissed her cheek as she pulled away and the Doctor flushed, looking down at her boots as Yaz stuck a finger into the sauce to taste it, making a happy  _ hmm  _ sound as she licked it off. 

‘Nooooooooo!’ Graham interjected, when her hand reached for the jar of hot curry powder. 

 

26

Yaz isn’t sure how this happened, who started this, or whether they should keep going.

Honestly if you asked her hand on heart and under oath to tell you who kissed who first, she probably wouldn’t know. She  _ thinks  _ it was her, but it could easily have been the Doctor. 

The woman in question is wriggling under her and gasping into thin air, although Yaz is barely touching her, and she feels so warm and safe and  _ new  _ under Yaz’s hands.

‘You okay?’ the Doctor murmured against Yaz’s skin, where she had her face pressed into Yaz’s neck, one hand lazily stroking her stomach under the fabric of her top. It was desperation, when they first got going, and they’re both now in various states of undress. Yaz was just about to find out if her new friend was wearing a bra under the bizarre getup she had on and the Doctor was peppering her in frenzied kisses, clutching at her as though she was frightened Yaz will disappear if she lets go. 

It’s an inappropriate situation too, although Yaz is starting to think that maybe it’s what both of them need, under the circumstances. Graham’s sofa is comfortable enough, though perhaps not large enough for both of them to lie on, and the two men have left the house to make preparations for Grace’s funeral. Yaz had come round to check on the Doctor and found her asleep, curled in a ball with a note in Ryan’s messy scrawl explaining where they’d gone lying untouched on the coffee table.

Then there had been cuddling and whispered conversations and suddenly kissing and touching and now the Doctor was under her and Yaz was lying over her and it suddenly all felt like a bit too much at once.

‘Do you want to stop?’ the Doctor whispered again, pulling away from Yaz’s neck so she could see her eyes, large and dilated, cheeks pink and hair ruffled and god  _ damn  _ if she isn’t the more attractive thing Yaz has ever seen. 

She felt a pang of desire flood through her and she leaned down to press the Doctor back against the cushions, lips kissing hungrily at her mouth, fingers tugging at the buttons on her waistcoat and shirt as she hastily undid them to reveal…

… huh. No bra after all. What a gal.

At least for an alien she had relatively familiar body parts, Yaz could deal with that, although she hadn’t ventured inbetween her legs yet.

Yaz bent down to kiss at the Doctor’s chest and she arched her back into the air, groaning loudly as Yaz gently bit at one of her nipples, running her tongue over the soft flesh.

‘Biology,’ the Doctor whispered, and Yaz honest to god giggled. 

‘What do you like?’ Yaz whispered, tugging at the belt around the Doctor’s waist, her friend’s eyes going wide as she slipped a hand under the waistband. She was never usually this bold in the bedroom, but there was something about the Doctor she couldn’t resist and after her new friend had saved their lives, she wanted to repay her somehow. This isn’t what she’d had in mind, admittedly, but she wasn’t going to stop now. 

‘I don’t know,’ the Doctor whispered. ‘I’m new. This is all so new for me.’

‘Tell me if you don’t like it,’ Yaz whispered, and she bent her head down to kiss and bite at the Doctor’s neck as her fingers slid downwards, relieved that everything down there seemed to be anatomically appropriate.

The Doctor moaned so loudly that Yaz kissed her again to shut her up, tongue pushing between her teeth as the Doctor bucked her hips and writhed under her in pleasure, gasping into her mouth.

‘Yaz…’ she breathed, and Yaz took that as a sign to keep going, her movements becoming more steady and firm as the Doctor arched her head back, eyes squeezed tightly shut but mouth open as she panted up into the air. 

When Yaz slipped a finger inside her the Doctor’s eyes shot open and she pulled back, quickly.

‘Too much?’ she asked, pausing her movements.

‘That felt… weird,’ the Doctor said, as though she was struggling to find the right word. ‘Not bad weird! Just odd.’

‘That’s okay, we can do it next time,’ Yaz said, kissing her softly as she located the small nub that, even on alien anatomy, had to be a clit and started to rub gently, the Doctor breathing loudly and gasping below her.

Yaz didn't stop to wonder if there would even  _ be  _ a next time because then the Doctor was falling apart under her and the sight was so intoxicating that Yaz felt the heat between her legs get worse as the Doctor panted and sighed happily, pressing against her fingers before slumping back against the couch with her eyes shut.

‘How was that?’ Yaz whispered, withdrawing her hand from the Doctor’s trousers and leaning carefully over her to kiss at those perfect collarbones.

‘You’re a marvel,’ the Doctor replied, gripping Yaz’s chin to kiss her lazily and softly, more gentler this time, without the desperation of a few minutes before. 

The Doctor was just starting to tug the t-shirt up and off over Yaz’s head when her phone buzzed.

Ryan. What timing.

‘They’re on their way back,’ Yaz whispered as the Doctor mouthed her breast over her bra. She may be new to being a woman but she seemed to have experience in romancing them. 

‘I can be quick,’ the Doctor replied, fingers sliding under the padded fabric to trace the outline of Yaz’s nipple. 

‘I don’t want you to be quick,’ Yaz replied, smiling and kissing the Doctor on the tip of her nose. ‘Now get yourself looking presentable again, we can continue this later.’

‘Hmm,’ the Doctor replied, smiling gently at Yaz. ‘Later.’

Whenever that would be.

 

27

Grace had always taught Ryan to keep his temper, telling him that nothing good ever came of losing it. Which is why he was probably on the floor of the TARDIS waiting for the unconscious woman in his lap to wake up.

It was his job's fault really, or at least that is what had started it. He'd gone in that morning only to be immediately pulled into the manager's office and given the sack. Too many missed shifts with no indication of where he was. Apparently he wasn't reliable enough to continue to be employed with them, they wanted 'someone they could depend on.’ (Which funnily enough is exactly how the Doctor described him, maybe he should ask her for a reference)

With Yaz at work and Graham with cousins they hadn't seen since the funeral, Ryan had decided to head back to the TARDIS to see if the Doctor could cheer him up. The cousins were Grace's family really, and even though her death was almost a year ago now he still couldn't bear to relive it. 

The Doctor usually disappeared and went off on a jaunt when she'd dropped her friends off at home, but after returning days after she said she would, and giving poor Yaz anxiety attacks because of it when she worried the Doctor wasn't coming back, she'd started to hang around, usually bothering Yaz's family or going on long walks with Graham. 

The TARDIS was still where she'd parked it outside Yaz's block of flats, and the doors opened for Ryan before he even had time to knock, that reassuring creaking sound echoing in the cavernous space. 

'You in?’ Ryan had called. It felt weird to be in the TARDIS without the Doctor, although he knew she wouldn't mind, she wanted her friends to treat her ship as much as their home as she did. 

No friendly response called back to him and Ryan leaned against the console, the TARDIS beeping at him when he got too close to the controls. Probably for the best. 

‘Where's your mate?’ he'd asked the ship, not that he expected it to reply. There was an answering bonging sound but that could have meant anything. 

And then his phone had rang and it had all been downhill from there. 

_ ‘... tomorrow yeah?’ _

_ 'Yeah, gotta cover Ryan now he's been binned, more money though I guess.’ _

_ 'Didn't you cover him anyway? S’not like he did much work when he  _ was  _ here.’ _

Ryan knew it was a buttdial and he knew he should just hang up and walk away but he just couldn't. He recognised the voices that were speaking, Eric and Tom. They'd all been to the pub together, he thought they were mates. 

_ 'Did you see that bird he's been hanging around with?’ _

_ 'What, PC Plod? Didn't he go to school with her?’ _

_ 'No the other one, blonde. She's barking. They were all by the river the other day and I heard her talking to the swans. Right nutter.’ _

_ 'Probably on drugs, looks like the type.’ _

Ryan squeezed the phone in his hand, the casing making an ominous plastic creaking sound. He could just about deal with people talking smack about him, god knows he was used to it. 

Not the Doctor though, never her. She didn't deserve it. 

_ ‘Shame, I was gonna try and get her number. Thought she looked proper bangable.’ _

_ 'If you're into weirdos then yeah, go for it. I doubt Ryan is porking her, he's probably got a tiny dick.’ _

_ 'Even if he was, I'd make her scream my name so loud she'd forget all about him. I have already.’ _

_ 'Ryan who?’ _

There was laughter then but Ryan didn't hear it because he'd thrown his phone angrily across the room, fire coursing through his veins at the utter betrayal. He'd worked with those blokes for two years and it had only taken an hour for them to start talking shit about him behind his back. 

_ Poor Ryan,  _ they'd say.  _ No career prospects, no girlfriend and now no job. No wonder all his friends hate him.  _

The sound of his phone hitting something, a something which let out an 'oof’, and then a loud thud quickly drew his attention and he spun round to find the Doctor sprawled on the floor, his phone lying next to her. 

Which is how he found himself now, questioning his life choices, with the Doctor's head on his lap as he waited for her to come round. The welt the phone had left on her forehead was large and red and  _ oh god Yaz is going to kill me.  _

'What does “bangable” mean?’ the Doctor mumbled, and he quickly dropped his hand away from her hair where he'd been unconsciously stroking her head. 

'Doctor, I am so  _ so  _ sorry,’ he said, his voice cracking at the realisation of what he'd just done to his friend, who would never lift a finger to harm him. 

She sat up slowly, raising a hand to her head to feel the lump and gave him a curious look. 

'You alright?’ 

And that was all he took to set him off, the angry tears suddenly spilling over as his friend, injured, confused but still so goddamn  _ kind,  _ put his needs over her (more urgent) ones. 

He didn't deserve her, he really didn't. 

She looked a bit surprised but still gave him a hug and he clung to her as he cried into her shoulder. For his job, for his fake friends, for his nan and for the amazing woman he'd hurt because he'd let his nan down and lost his temper. 

When he pulled away from her his face was creased into a frown. 

'Why did you ask me what bangable means?’ 

The thing about the Doctor is, when she knows she's caught, she at least has the decency to look guilty.

'Sorry,’ she said sheepishly. ‘Telepathy is stronger when someone's upset, and when I'm out of it. Looks like you've had a shit day.’

He  _ never  _ heard her swear, but he knew she was doing it on his behalf and it made him smile.

‘I’m so sorry, Doctor.’

She waved a hand at him. 'Already forgotten, think you could help me up though?’ 

He reached his hands out for her and she stood shakily, brushing herself off before smiling softly at him.

‘For the record, anyone that thinks you aren’t dependable is obviously a few zips short of a Slitheen.’

Sometimes her references make no sense at all, that or she’s concussed, but Ryan grinned anyway as she chowed down on a custard cream from her biscuit dispenser, wordlessly holding one out to him.

‘You free this afternoon then?’ she asked, flipping a few switches absentmindedly on the console. ‘I’ve got a couple of jobs to do that only someone doing an engineering NVQ could help me with.’

He  _ really  _ didn't deserve her.

 

If Yaz and Graham were surprised to find the two of them deep in the TARDIS console that evening, cables strewn everywhere as the Doctor excitedly explained the science behind Eye of Harmony  propulsion while waving a pizza slice around, they didn't show it.

Until they saw the Doctor’s black eye.

Then there was questions. 

 

28

Graham had honestly thought the Doctor was asexual. Sure she could get a bit touchy feely sometimes (especially around Yaz) but she honestly didn't seem to be that sexual of a person. 

Imagine his surprise, therefore, when he went looking for her (after leaving Ryan and Yaz dancing like maniacs on the dance floor) and found her getting screwed against the wall of the corridor he was currently wandering down by that American chap she'd spotted at the bar. 

And, at least from the way her legs were wrapped around his waist and her dress was pushed up around her hips, she was enjoying it too. 

'I wouldn't have been averse to doing this when you were a bloke, you know,’ the American drawled, panting as he thrusted into her. 

‘Not dignifying that with a response, Jack,’ the Doctor gasped, hands clutching at the back of his shirt. 

Graham turned and made his exit sharpish. Best leave them to it. 

  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The piano piece the Doctor plays is INSANE! Link to it below!  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdUy70dh8LY
> 
> Please leave me a comment if you enjoyed it! :D


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I haven't updated this one for an age! These drabbles are longer so hopefully they'll be worth the wait!

29

The dinner was boring, there was no denying that, and Yaz was tired from a combination of work and her journeys around the universe so probably could have done with a bit of a distraction from it all in all honesty. 

That being said, the Doctor teleporting herself a good few feet above the dinner table and then crashing through it with what looked like a giant hamster in her arms (which then escaped and propelled itself across the room squeaking loudly) probably wasn’t the distraction she would have gone with.

‘Yaz!’ the Doctor yelled cheerfully in amongst the broken bits of table, plates, cutlery and glasses with curry smeared in her face and hair, looking slightly winded and a bit confused. 

‘Uh.’

Yaz wasn’t really sure what else to say. Her family was still in a state of shock, cutlery in their hands ready to tuck into a meal that was now on the floor, bits of food in everyone’s clothes and on their skin. 

‘Oh no!’ the Doctor yelled suddenly, throwing herself to her feet and sprinting unsteadily across the room when she realised the giant hamster had escaped and was currently worming itself under the door that led to the other flats and the stairwell.

‘Sorry!’ the Doctor called back as an afterthought as she threw the door open and dove after the squirming, squeaking creature with gusto, leaving Yaz to face down the stares of her extended family. 

‘Well that certainly brightened up the evening,’ Umbreen said with a goofy smile on her face.

‘Yaz,’ her mother said with a stare that Yaz knew only too well.

‘It wasn’t me!’ she protested immediately. ‘I had no idea she was going to do that!’

‘How  _ did  _ she do that?’ her uncle asked, looking up at the ceiling as though he was expecting to find a portal in it.

There wasn’t.

There came a shout and a  _ splash  _ from outside and Yaz flung herself to her feet. ‘Sorry, I’d better go and- I’d better go.’

She dashed out of the door before her family could protest. 

The Doctor was pulling herself out of the river with the giant hamster wrapped in her coat when Yaz ran towards her and she sat, breathless, on the bank for a moment, the creature on her lap making noises of protest at being captured.

‘Sorry, Yaz,’ the Doctor panted. ‘I was in a bit of a tricky situation. Set the coordinates for the first place I could think of.’ She glared down at the cuff on her wrist that Yaz recognised as a vortex manipulator, similar to the one she’d confiscated from Krasko. ‘Cheap and nasty time travel,’ she muttered. 

Yaz sat down next to her, the mud sinking into her jeans, and observed the giant hamster that was puffing out its cheeks in annoyance still trying to wriggle itself free.

‘What is that thing?’ she asked. 

‘This is Piro,’ the Doctor exclaimed. ‘He’s a Nifomac, very distant cousin of the domestic hamster.’

‘He’s the size of a labrador.’

‘Yeah, he’s a big boy.’

The Doctor scratched Piro under his chin and he ceased his wriggling enough to enjoy the scratches, lifting his head up for better access.

‘Have I just got you in trouble?’ the Doctor asked, at least having the decency to look guilty about it.

‘Definitely,’ Yaz replied. ‘You can make it up to me though. Take me to the land of the giant hamsters.’

The Doctor grinned and handed Piro, still wrapped up and unable to move in her coat, to Yaz while she set the coordinates on the vortex manipulator, presumably to wherever she’d just come from.

‘Right, hold my hand,’ the Doctor said, lacing their fingers together. ‘And sorry in advance, these things suck.’

Then there was a flash of light, a burning smell, and Yaz had the strangest sensation of being sucked into something before suddenly she was sat on a cold tiled floor, Piro wriggling crossly in her arms, and the Doctor already standing, helping a shaky Yaz to her feet.

‘All right? Deep breaths. It’ll wear off.’ 

‘My babiiiiiiiiiie.’

A large woman with massive skirts and green skin was running towards them, holding out her hands for the hamster who looked like he’d rather be anywhere else at that moment. She scooped him out Yaz’s hands, the Doctor’s coat falling to the floor which the Doctor bent to retrieve, and fussed over him, the hamster looking at his two new friends as though begging them to take him away from this woman.

‘Oh, you’re all wet,’ the woman said, looking the Doctor up and down. ‘Thank you so much for retrieving my precious Piro, but please go and dry yourself off, you’re getting water all over my tiled floors.’

‘Charming,’ Yaz muttered once she’d walked away, the hamster’s calls for help echoing down the corridor. 

The Doctor looked down into her soggy boots and pulled a face. ‘She’s got a point though. Right, come on then, Yaz. My room is down this way. They gave me a room! Can you believe it.’

‘Where are we?’ Yaz asked as they walked down the corridor, the Doctor’s boots squelching on the floor. 

‘We’re on Marina 6. I got invited to a party but I think they were expecting old Scottish cause when I turned up it didn't go down very well, then the hamster escaped and it just escalated from there really.’

‘You said you were in a tricky situation and that’s why you teleported over my table?’

‘Oh yeah, Piro jumped off the balcony so I jumped after him. Couldn’t bear to see something as cute as him get smashed to death on the rocks.’

‘So you decided that  _ you’d  _ get smashed to death on the rocks instead?’

‘I had my vortex manipulator in my pocket somewhere, I knew it would take some digging out but luckily it was a long fall. Didn't retrieve it until I was almost at the bottom though and I panicked and entered the first co-ordinates I could think of.’

‘Wait,’ Yaz said, stopping her for a moment. ‘You were in trouble, and the first place you thought to go was my flat?’

The Doctor pondered this, hair dripping water down her face. 

‘Uh, yeah. I guess so. That alright?’

‘Yeah, just, you know.’

‘No, I don’t,’ the Doctor said, puzzled. ‘I’ll go back and apologise to your mum! Honest. Better get her a new table too. I can feel the bruises forming already. I hit the table at the same speed I was falling down the cliff at, amazed I didn't go through the floor.’ 

‘No, I mean-’ 

The Doctor continued to look cluelessly at her and Yaz grinned and leaned forward to kiss her cheek, the Doctor’s face flushing.

‘I guess I’m touched, is all. That you came to me when you were in trouble.’

‘Well, yeah,’ the Doctor said with a grin. ‘You’re Yaz. Everyone should have a Yaz in their life. Why are you looking at me like that?’

Yaz realised with a start that she was gazing lovestruck at the Doctor and quickly managed to get her face under control, slipping an arm through her friend’s.

‘Because you’re the best person I’ve ever met,’ she told her, pushing open the door of the Doctor’s room, the TARDIS on the rug blue and humming at their arrival. ‘Now get some dry clothes on, and we’ll go find mum a new table. And dinner.’

 

30

The fam have realised that, despite the fact that the Doctor doesn’t really need the TARDIS translation circuits as she’s fluent in most languages, there have been occasions where neither her fluidity in speaking english nor the TARDIS can help her and she starts speaking a completely different language which they’ve never heard her speak before and can only assume is her own. 

The first occasion is when she gets knocked over the head in a stampede while they’re running away from an army of monkeys wielding blow-torches (one of their stranger adventures, admittedly), and the Doctor stumbles for a second before awkwardly getting to her feet with Ryan and Yaz dragging her along as they head to the safety of the TARDIS. 

Once in the TARDIS she ran to the console to get them out of there, turned back to them with blood dripping down her face, and started speaking absolute gibberish. 

‘Um, say again?’ Ryan asked, face screwed up in confusion.

She frowned at him and opened her mouth but the words that were coming out was like no language they’d ever heard before. It was almost musical, like wind-chimes and bells, sounds it would be impossible for any human to make. 

‘Doc, we can’t understand you,’ Graham told her.

‘Also, you’re bleeding everywhere,’ Yaz said, running forward to press a tissue out of her pocket against the Doctor’s head injury as her face scronched in confusion. 

She said something again, to Yaz this time, but Yaz only shook her head as she cleaned away the blood to try and inspect the damage. 

‘I’ve not got a clue what you’re saying,’ she said. ‘Now come on, you need a dressing on this or it’s not gonna stop bleeding.’

It was when the Doctor woke up from an impromptu nap on the sofa later that evening, one hand immediately going to her now bandaged head as she made a pained groaning noise, that she started talking english again.

‘Stupid monkeys. No-one likes monkeys. Why couldn’t it have been otters with blow torches? At least then it would have been cute. And hilarious. But mainly cute.’

‘Oh hey, you’re making sense again,’ Graham congratulated her as she sat herself up, blinking away the tiredness.

‘Well, you know, as much sense as you usually do,’ Ryan interjected. 

‘Was I not making sense before?’ the Doctor asked, confused. It was then that she noticed where they were, the high arched ceilings of the library high above their heads, starlight filtering in through the clear glass panels in the roof. ‘How did we get back in the TARDIS?’

Team TARDIS exchanged worried looks. 

‘We made it back while we were being chased,’ Yaz said. ‘Then you flew us out of danger, muttered something incomprehensible, ate an entire cheesecake and passed out on the sofa. Don’t you remember?’

The Doctor’s hand went to her stomach and she pulled a face. ‘I think I’m starting to remember the cheesecake. What was I saying?’

‘Dunno, sounded like wind-chimes,’ Graham said, shrugging and going back to his newspaper.

‘Did it sound like this?’ the Doctor made the same noises again and Ryan nodded. 

‘Yeah, that’s the one.’

‘Huh.’

She looked thoughtful and made as though she was going to stand up, but clearly thought better of it when she flopped back onto the sofa again. 

‘Everything alright?’ Yaz asked from the other end of the sofa a few moments later when the Doctor shuffled up to her and pressed her head against Yaz’s thigh, curling into a ball. 

‘Yeah, all good. Just gonna use you like a pillow. Looks like Graham’s got most of the cushions.’

A scandalised Graham lifted his head from his paper. ‘I’ve got a bad back!’ he protested.

 

The second occasion was when the Doctor was so drunk she could barely stand and was getting practically carried back to the TARDIS by Graham and Ryan, who were also bordering on similar levels of inebriation, while Yaz followed behind trying not to laugh at their antics. 

The Doctor made her way to the console but Yaz very firmly caught her arm and steered her away from the controls. 

‘There is no way I’m letting you drink and drive,’ Yaz informed her sternly, Ryan splitting off into peels of laughter as though this was the funniest thing he’d ever heard. 

‘I thought you said the blue ones were non-alcoholic, Doc?’ Graham asked, his face ruddy with the effects of the alcohol.

‘I was wrong!’ the Doctor slurred with a grin, leaning on Yaz and happily nuzzling the other woman’s hair with her nose. 

Yaz smiled, glad she had stuck to the fruit juice she found so delicious in this part of the galaxy. She was also very aware of the effect that the drunk Doctor was having on her, her body starting to light up in a way it hadn’t for years. The Doctor’s soft breath against her skin definitely wasn’t helping either, neither was the hand resting on her waist that felt red-hot through her clothes. 

‘Right, bed. All of you. Drink plenty of water.’

‘Yes,  _ mum,’  _ Ryan said sarcastically with a mock salute. 

‘Cheers for an awesome night, Doc!’ Graham said, staggering a little on the floor. ‘Hopefully I’ll remember it in the morning.’

The Doctor tried to say something in response but started making those weird bell sounds again and then started giggling hysterically. 

‘We’ve broken her!’ Ryan said. 

‘Have fun, Yaz!’ Graham said, leaving the two women alone in the console room. 

Yaz looked down at the Doctor who looked loopily up at her, cheeky grin on her face.

‘Have you drunk so much you can’t speak anymore?’

The Doctor said something that, while it made no sense whatsoever to Yaz, sounded an awful lot like ‘Yep!’ 

Yaz smiled, smoothing down the unruly blonde hair, the Doctor’s face going slack as she looked up at her with a look that Yaz recognised, her eyes almost black. They’d been dancing around the subject for weeks now. Casual touches and hugs in the corridors, holding hands on new planets, sitting close together for film nights in the TARDIS cinema. The attraction was obvious but neither women seemed brave enough to make the first move.

Which is why Yaz welcomed the sloppy, slightly poorly-aimed but still toe-curling kiss the Doctor planted on her mouth a few seconds later, her eyes sliding shut as the Doctor pressed her up against the console with surprising strength considering how drunk she was and positively ravaged her, hands gripping Yaz’s hips tightly, front pressed against hers, tongue running along the inside of her mouth, Yaz’s hands tangling in her hair.

Yaz could die right now and she’d be happy.

Too late, Yaz realised what she was doing and pulled away, shaking her head when the Doctor’s lips dove to her neck.

‘No, we can’t,’ she said softly, the Doctor looking up at her, her expression akin to heartbreak.

‘Hey, it’s not that I don’t want to,’ Yaz said softly, cupping her face in her hands. ‘But you’re completely wasted to the point where you can’t even speak properly. We can’t do this right now.’

The Doctor said something, her expression hopeful, and the TARDIS chimed behind her. Yaz turned to see the translation on one of the small screens and she smiled.

_ In the morning? _

‘Yes, in the morning. Now come on, you’re staying with me tonight.’

The Doctor fell asleep almost as soon as she’d tumbled with great uncoordination into Yaz’s bed, and Yaz pulled the blanket over her, lying on her back in the dark as the Doctor snored next to her, dreading the morning. 

What if she was mad at her for taking advantage? What if she changed her mind? What if the relationship between them became so strained that Yaz was forced to leave?

What if, what if, what if.

Yaz barely slept all night, heart pounding in her chest when she remembered, already preparing herself for her inevitable departure in the morning. What would Ryan and Graham say? 

She rolled onto her side and screwed her eyes tightly shut when she felt the Doctor move beside her in the morning, heart pounding in her chest as the other woman mumbled sleepily to herself and shifted in the bed. 

‘Morning, Yaz,’ she mumbled, curling up to her and wrapping an arm around her waist, immediately recoiling and sitting bolt upright in shock.

‘Yaz! What’s the matter? You’re practically radiating anxiety! I swear I didn't try and read your mind.’

Yaz sat up slowly, not looking at the Doctor, wrapping her arms around her knees instead.

‘Hey,’ the Doctor said gently, a hand on her arm. ‘Talk to me.’

‘Do you remember last night?’ Yaz asked quietly.

‘Not really, but judging from the hangover I’m not particularly surprised,’ the Doctor said, rubbing her forehead in annoyance. ‘I doubt we’ll see much of the boys today, it might just be me and you keeping ourselves entertained. That would be alright though, right? Yaz?’

Yaz said nothing and the Doctor scooted closer to her. 

‘Hey, Yasmin. What’s the matter? What’s this for?’

She gently wiped away a runaway tear with the tip of her finger, pressing a kiss lightly over the spot.

‘Did I upset you last night?’ she asked quietly, but Yaz shook her head. 

‘No, you didn't.’

‘Are you going to tell me what’s wrong?’

‘I’m too scared to.’

‘Why?’

‘In case you hate me.’

The Doctor chuckled. ‘Yaz, a friend of mine once tried to blackmail me by throwing all of my TARDIS keys into a volcano and I still didn't hate her. In fact I did what she wanted anyway. So whatever it is that’s bothering you can’t be that bad.’ 

Yaz still said nothing and the Doctor placed a hand on Yaz’s, squeezing lightly. 

‘I can look, if that would be easier? If you wanted me to?’

Yaz nodded, closing her eyes tightly shut, and a few moments later the Doctor’s arms were around her tugging her back down into the sheets kissing all over her face until Yaz couldn’t stop laughing.

‘You daft, beautiful human,’ the Doctor said with a soft smile. ‘As if I would ever think you’d taken advantage of me. In fact, as I recall, you said we could continue in the morning…?’

‘So, you’re not mad at me?’ Yaz checked, uncertainly.

The Doctor kissed her so deeply that by the time she pulled away Yaz had forgotten her own name. 

‘Does that answer your question?’ she whispered.

Yaz wrapped her fingers in her short blonde hair.

‘Shut up and do that again.’

 

31

‘Right, well. We’re home,’ Graham said, turning the engine off and sitting quietly in the car with Ryan, the sky outside still dark with no promise of dawn.

Their eyes turned to the unconscious alien in the back seat who’d fallen asleep almost immediately once they’d left the police station after giving their statements. She was sprawled out across it, blonde hair over her face, and Ryan could see her fingers clenching and unclenching against the material as she dreamed.

‘Doctor?’ he called softly, but she didn't stir, and he carefully brushed her hair out of her eyes so he could look at her face. 

‘She doesn’t look right,’ Graham said quietly. ‘Does she?’

‘No, she doesn’t,’ Ryan agreed. 

He climbed out of the car and opened the rear door, sitting gingerly next to her and placing a hand on her shoulder, feeling her torso rise and fall with each breath. 

‘How are we gonna get her out?’ Graham asked, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

There’d been no question as to where she was going to stay, and they weren’t planning on just abandoning her on the street, although she’d hung back when they were arranging lifts back to their homes as though she thought they would do just that. It had been Yaz in the end, taking her hand and gently pushing her into the back of Graham’s car, that had convinced her to stay with them for a night or so until she found more permanent accommodation.

Or her TARDIS, whatever that was. 

‘Hey, Doc,’ Graham said gently, squeezing her hand, and she opened her eyes and blinked blerily at them. 

‘Oh, hey, we back?’

‘Yeah, you alright?’

The Doctor sat herself up and rubbed her tired eyes, blinking in confusion. Ryan recognised that look all too well, that was the look of someone who’d woken up far too early and was desperate for more sleep.

‘Come on, you can sleep inside,’ he said gently, taking her hands and helping her out the car. 

‘I don’t sleep that much,’ she mumbled as he tucked a supportive arm across her shoulders when she stumbled on a loose paving slab. 

‘Yeah, I can tell,’ Graham said quietly, unlocking their front door and stepping inside.

The Doctor made a beeline for the sofa but Ryan firmly pushed her up the stairs instead.

‘No, you’re staying in my room tonight. You need a proper sleep in a proper bed.’

‘But what about you?’

Ryan sat her down on his bed and sat next to her, hands folded in his lap, eyes down.

‘I’m not tired, I think I’ll go for a run.’

‘At this time of night?’

‘Best time for it, no-one about.’ He stood up and opened his chest of drawers, tugging out a spare t-shirt and PJ bottoms and putting them on the bed next to her. 

‘Get some sleep, yeah?’

‘Ryan…’ she said softly.

‘It’s alright, Doctor,’ he told her, forcing himself to look into her eyes. He could see her fighting against the pull of sleep and he grabbed his running stuff and headed out the door.

‘Sweet dreams,’ he said softly. 

It was when he got back and was brushing his teeth in the bathroom sink, dawn just beginning to make itself known outside their windows, that he heard a distressed cry coming from his room, and he gently pushed it open to see what was going on.

The Doctor had changed into his spare clothes and was sprawled out, spread-eagle fashion across the bed, duvet on the floor, frowning crossly in her sleep, as though she was having an argument with someone. Her t-shirt had ridden up slightly and he could see the golden light from earlier swirling lazily on her stomach, climbing her chest, hovering around where he imagined her heart would be (or was it hearts? His nan had said she had two separate pulses) and expelling itself through her mouth in the form of a golden wisp that climbed towards the ceiling before dissipating. 

Ryan bent and picked up the duvet, tucking it back over her, the Doctor curling herself up into a ball as she burrowed herself into the sheets, sighing softly. 

‘She alright?’ Graham’s voice came from the doorway, and Ryan nodded, quickly leaving the room again and closing the door behind him.

‘Yeah, she kicked the duvet off. I think she was cold.’ 

They were silent for a moment, neither knowing what to say to the other, the light from the rising sun moving gently across the carpeted floor.

‘I’m awake now,’ Graham said. ‘Might put the kettle on. Go have a kip in my room. I’ll see if we’ve got anything in the way of breakfast for later.’

Ryan nodded and headed towards Graham’s room, but just before he closed the door he heard his own bedroom door open and turned to see Graham peering round it to check on their new friend. He turned back to Ryan and shrugged. 

‘She must have heard me, she’s mumbling about wanting a cup of tea now. I don’t think she’s really awake though.’

‘Do you really think she’s an alien?’ Ryan asked him, suddenly aware of how tired he was as he leaned heavily against the doorframe.

‘Yeah, I do,’ Graham replied. ‘Aside from the glowy thing, which she’s doing again now, there’s just something about her.’

‘Nan reckoned she’s got two hearts,’ Ryan said quietly, and Graham nodded.

‘Yeah, I’d believe that too. Fell from the sky through a train roof, immediately saved our lives, only got a brief period of respite when she passed out from exhaustion, then its been non-stop really hasn’t it? Until now, anyway.’

‘You think her two hearts give her extra stamina?’ Ryan asked.

‘Oh, well, yeah. That too I guess. I was thinking more metaphorically though.’

‘How do you mean?’

‘She was obviously injured but she put our needs above her own. I mean, two hearts, double the amount of love.’ 

‘You’re getting soppy in your old age, Graham,’ Ryan said with a yawn.

His bedroom door opened and the Doctor poked her head round, sleep-ruffled and confused.

‘Did someone mention tea? Or did I imagine it? I’d love a cup of tea, just the thing for healing the synapses.’

‘I’ll take your word for it, Doc,’ Graham told her, and she frowned. 

‘I never used to like being called “Doc”,’ she pondered, then she smiled. ‘I don’t think I mind it anymore.’

‘Well, cup of tea coming right up. Doc.’ Graham said with a soft smile, heading down the stairs.

She looked up at Ryan, still leaning against Graham’s bedroom door.

‘Go back to sleep,’ he told her, firmly, and she stuck her tongue out at him and closed the door again, mumbling something about how he was as bad as Clara. 

 

32

‘Have you seen Yaz and the Doctor?’ Ryan asked, trying to spot the two women through the throng of people on the dance floor, the jazz music swelling as the dancing got more energetic. 

‘Not for a while,’ Graham said, but his face was red and he was a terrible liar.

‘Grandad…’

Graham sighed. ‘Look, it’s none of our business.’

‘But…?’

‘But I went back to the cloakroom to grab my jacket and, well,’ he flushed again. ‘I  _ maaaay  _ have walked in on Yaz and the Doc.’

‘Doing what?’ Ryan asked, confused. ‘What were they doing in the cloakroom?’

‘All I know is it looked consensual and that’s all I’m gonna say about it,’ Graham said firmly. 

‘Hiya!’ the Doctor’s cheerful voice called as she made her way back over to them with Yaz, both women looking smug and extremely pleased with themselves. ‘You having a nice night?’

‘Yeah, s’awesome!’ Ryan said. ‘This band are amazing.’

‘Aren’t they just? They played at my friend’s wedding. Or at least I think they did, that whole night is a bit of a blur if I’m being honest. You cold, Graham? I’m sure you weren’t wearing your jacket earlier.’

‘Oh, I was gonna go outside and see the fireworks, Doc. Thought I’d need my coat.’

He was bright red, something the Doctor didn't seem to notice as she happily snagged another glass of wine from a passing waiter, but Yaz had gone very pale all of a sudden.

‘Um,  _ when  _ did you get your coat?’ she asked, swallowing hard.

Graham said nothing, which was probably answer enough, and when the Doctor finished her wine she raised an eyebrow.

‘What’s up with you two? You’ve both gone ever such funny colours.’

‘Let’s go see those fireworks, yeah?’ Ryan said quickly, grabbing the Doctor’s arm and steering her away, leaving Yaz and Graham to awkwardly follow behind them, both avoiding the other’s eye. 

 

33

‘Doctor!’

Ryan banged furiously on the doors of the ship as tendrils of smoke billowed out. He’d been walking past with Graham on their way to pick up Yaz for a pub quiz (figuring they actually stood a chance at winning the prize money now they’d been travelling in space and time) and had found the TARDIS parked in its usual spot outside Yaz’s flat, the doors firmly shut, scorch marks on the blue wood and the light on top of the box flashing urgently, although the ship didn't seem to be making any attempt at dematerialising. 

‘What’s going on?’ Yaz yelled, racing towards them from her flat.

‘She won’t open the doors!’ Graham said, panicked. ‘We just got here and the ship was like this and she won’t open the doors.’

‘Hang on! I’ve got a key.’

Yaz started patting down her pockets until she withdrew a small silver key, inserting it into the lock and opening the door with a quiet  _ click. _

Grey smoke billowed out at them, making them cough as it spiralled up into the air. 

‘I can see the Doctor!’ Ryan yelled, peering through it until he could see the prone figure of their friend lying on the floor. ‘I don’t think she’s moving.’ 

‘I can’t hear the vents either,’ Yaz said, listening hard. ‘If we get those on it’ll clear the smoke.’

The three humans made their way inside, fighting through the smoke as Yaz blindly groped for the console, Graham and Ryan flinging themselves down at the Doctor’s side. 

A dial turned under Yaz’s questing fingers and there came a noise like a sudden vacuum cleaner, the smoke being pulled back into the vents as the room slowly began to clear, the TARDIS beginning to hum under Yaz’s hands as though it was thanking her. 

‘Is she alright?’ Yaz asked, looking down at the Doctor as she quickly programmed the ship to draw in more oxygen from the outside air, grateful for her late night TARDIS lessons once the boys had gone to bed. 

‘Yeah, she’s breathing,’ Graham said, leaning over her. ‘I think she’s -’

‘AH!’ 

The Doctor sat bolt upright, hands clutching her chest as she coughed and spluttered, her eyes red and streaming.

‘Oh, hey fam,’ she croaked.

‘What on earth happened to you?’ Ryan asked her, a hand on her back to support her in case she decided to tilt forwards.

‘TARDIS hit a temporal anomaly in the time vortex, flung us out and crash landed.’

She wiped her eyes, wrinkling her nose at the smell of smoke coming off of her. 

‘I should really go back and see what it was.’

‘In a minute,’ Yaz said, sitting in front of her with the emergency oxygen canister, tying the mask over her mouth despite her protestations.

‘I don’t care that you’ve got “super special breathing powers” or whatever you said it was called. You were still unconscious so breathe through this for a few minutes.’

‘Respiratory bypass system,’ the Doctor corrected her, coughing into the mask. 

‘Yeah, that. Now shush.’

The Doctor looked affronted at being asked to shush but grumpily did as she was told, pulling the mask off her face and jumping to her feet a few minutes later.

‘Right, I feel great and the TARDIS has vented all of the smoke out. Shall we go check out a temporal anomaly strong enough to knock a TARDIS out of flight?’

She was practically vibrating with excitement, and her three friends looked at each other before nodding with wide smiles.

‘Amazing!’

The Doctor programmed the coordinates, throwing levers and flipping switches, and then suddenly stopped as though something had occurred to her and she ran back and hugged her three friends tightly, squeezing them all together. 

‘Thanks, fam!’

‘Anytime, Doc,’ Graham said, affectionately patting her shoulder when she pulled back with a grin.

‘Hey, do you fancy a pub quiz later?’ Ryan said, suddenly remembering.

‘Pub quiz?’

‘Yeah. You’re competing against other teams and you have to answer the most number of questions right and you win some money.’

The Doctor’s eyes lit up.

‘Do we get a team name?’

‘Yep,’ Yaz said.

_ ‘Can we be team TARDIS?’ _

‘Yep,’ Graham agreed. ‘Although no-one will know what that means.’

‘Temporal anomalies and pub quizzes with the fam?’ the Doctor said, her smile infectious.  _ ‘Brilliant.’ _

 

34

‘You have  _ got  _ to be kidding. She said that? Really? To your face?’

Ryan blinked himself slowly awake, the events of the previous day slowly coming back to him.

The Doctor had taken them skiing in 19th century Switzerland and they’d been snowed in at the lodge with another group of people, unable to get back to the TARDIS. A makeshift camp had quickly been implemented, sleeping bags and blankets spread out across the floor with the fire burning happily in the hearth, the heat of it making everyone feel drowsy. Their little family had all bagsied a corner of the room, built a fort out of blankets (the Doctor’s idea, of course) and had all drifted off to the sound of the Doctor humming a lullaby from her home world. They knew she’d done it on purpose when Yaz had said she wasn’t feeling tired, but it was relaxing nonetheless. 

It felt like it was still the middle of the night, but Ryan recognised the Doctor’s soft voice and he clambered out of their little fort, minding a sleeping Yaz and a snoring Graham, to find the Doctor stood by the window with a baby in her arms, away from the other sleeping occupants of the lodge.  

The baby belonged to a younger couple who had taken up space next to them, and Ryan could see they were still asleep. Their baby on the other hand, who couldn’t have been older than 6 months, was wide awake and was babbling up at the Doctor, one tiny hand wrapped around a lock of her hair.

‘Well sure, I agree, I’m just not sure that kind of language was called for though, do you?’

There was a cat around her ankles, the lodge-owner’s pet, and it meowed up at her, the Doctor nodding in agreement as though it had said something very profound.

‘Absolutely, just unnecessary.’ 

‘Um, Doctor?’

She looked up at him, and the baby gurgled at him in alarm, but the Doctor immediately reassured it.

‘Oh don’t worry, that’s my friend Ryan. He’s alright.’

‘Are you talking to that baby?’

‘Yes!’ she said brightly. ‘And the cat. Babies and cats are excellent conversationalists you know.’ 

He walked over to her and bent down to pet the cat, the animal purring and rubbing itself up against him. 

‘What are you talking about?’

‘You’re not going to believe this, Ryan,’ the Doctor said, moving the baby higher up on her shoulder so it could see Ryan better. ‘But this little pumpkin was called a snot-nose in nursery.’

The baby made a cross gurgling sound to signify its displeasure.

‘Gosh,’ Ryan wasn’t really sure what else to say. ‘Who said that?’

‘Some toddler called Melanie, s’just mean.’

The baby was started to fall asleep on the Doctor’s shoulder, eyes closing as it sucked on its hand in comfort. 

‘Kids nowadays, am I right?’ Ryan said, and the baby  _ actually  _ nodded at him.

The cat meowed for attention and Ryan bent down to pick it up, stroking its soft head. 

‘How come you can talk to babies and cats?’ he asked as the Doctor cradled the little human in her arms, the baby sleeping soundly. 

‘I’m good at languages,’ she said quietly, more to the baby than to him. ‘I mean the TARDIS translates pretty much anything but I’m good at languages anyway. Babies and cats are the same as humans, really. They make sounds and you just have to interpret what the sound means. When babies cry it’s because they’re sad or frightened and need attention but when they babble they’re talking to you. Any parent knows that.’

‘Are you a parent, Doctor?’ Ryan asked quietly, but she said nothing, instead laying the sleeping baby back down next to its mum and dad. 

‘She was lonely,’ the Doctor explained, indicating the baby. ‘And she knew I was awake, she only wanted someone to talk to.’ 

The cat meowed again. 

‘And this one wanted cuddles,’ the Doctor said with a smile, scratching the cat’s chin. 

‘You talking to cats again, Doctor?’ Yaz whispered, peering her tired face out of their little fort. 

‘Does she do it a lot?’ Ryan asked, amused.

‘Yeah, there’s a cat that lives on my estate, she’s always talking to it.’

‘Persephone has a lot of gossip,’ the Doctor said, nodding her head. ‘She’s like the gossip girl of cats.’

‘I thought the cat was called Twinky?’

‘Yaz, if you were called Twinky, wouldn’t you consider changing your name?’

Yaz pondered this and nodded her head thoughtfully.

‘Right, back to bed you two,’ the Doctor said, pushing Ryan gently back in the direction of their little fort and climbing in after them. ‘It’s late. Or early, depending on how you want to look at it.’

‘Do they have cats on your planet?’ Ryan asked, getting back under his blankets.

‘No, not many animals on Gallifrey,’ the Doctor said, pulling a face. ‘Shame, I love cats.’

Graham let out a particularly loud snore and Yaz chuckled as the three of them lay in the dark, listening to the sounds of the other people around them, the soft snoring and rustle of limbs under fabric in the dark.

Just as Ryan was falling asleep the cat wandered into their little fort and curled up between Yaz and the Doctor, nudging the Doctor’s hand for a head rub and letting out a little meow.

‘I don’t know about that, you’ll have to ask your slave in the morning,’ the Doctor replied quietly.

‘Slave?’ Yaz mumbled.

‘What cats refer to their owners as.’

‘Oh.’

The cat meowed again and the Doctor chuckled. Just as Ryan was about to fall asleep he could have swore he heard her whisper to the cat:

‘That’s exactly what my daughter used to say.’ 

 

35

The Doctor was quiet when her three friends bounded happily onto the ship, delighted to see her. She was stood by the console, hair in her face, nervously fiddling with a switch that she seemed to be flicking on and off until the TARDIS eventually beeped at her in annoyance and she stopped. 

‘Hey, Doctor,’ Ryan said with a grin, Yaz already heading towards the console to give her a hug. She turned to them and smiled broadly but it didn't quite meet her eyes, something Yaz didn't fail to pick up on as she looked cautiously up at her. 

‘You alright?’ she asked gently.

‘Me? Yeah. Course I am! I’m always alright. How are you lot? Hungry? Thought I’d take you for pizza cakes for dinner.’

She bounded around the console, already sending the ship into flight, but she was lacking her usual lustre and the three humans exchanged concerned looks amongst themselves. Her face was pale and there were large dark rings under her eyes, hands almost shaking as she fiddled with the equipment. 

‘You’re doing the thing, Doc,’ Graham told her, not unkindly. 

‘What thing?’ she asked, puzzled, fiddling with a few dials. 

‘You know, the human thing. Where you say everything's okay but it isn’t and you just don’t want people to know something’s wrong. We’ve discussed you doing the thing.’

‘I am not doing the thing,’ she said, affronted. 

‘What’s on the back of your neck?’ Ryan asked, and she froze like a deer in the headlights, Yaz and Graham immediately trying to look for whatever it was Ryan had spotted but she turned away from them. 

‘Doc, you need to talk to us,’ Graham told her and she shook her head, blonde hair falling across her face as something on the console started alarming and she moved gratefully to fix it.

Graham and Ryan looked at Yaz. Yaz looked back at them. They had a silent conversation with their eyes which resulted in Yaz silently nodding and moving over to their quiet friend, grasping her hand when the Doctor seemed to sense what was coming and tried to run. 

‘Turn around,’ Yaz said, and the Doctor softened and pouted, allowing Yaz to gently push her hair out of the way to reveal the 2 inch burn mark on the back of her neck, square shaped and angry looking.

‘What happened?’ Yaz asked, brushing her fingers over the Doctor’s shoulders reassuringly, feeling her shake a little.

The Doctor shrugged and absentmindedly pressed a button on the console, glaring up at the ceiling when the TARDIS made a whirring sound.

‘Doctor…’ Ryan said, joining Yaz at the console and tentatively putting a hand on her arm. ‘Tell us what happened.’

‘Had a run in with some slave traders,’ she said with a shrug. ‘It’s no big deal.’

‘Did they do that?’ Graham asked, motioning to the burn mark on the back of her neck. 

‘Yeah, they might have done. Don’t really remember, s’all a bit of a blur.’

‘Are you saying that to avoid the question?’ Yaz asked gently. 

‘No,’ the Doctor sighed. ‘I think it must have been a control box they put on my neck. Releases this drug that keeps you docile, stops you fighting back. They grabbed me at a market on Raxicon 9 just after I dropped you guys off then I woke up on the desert planet of Saharan completely alone with the control box broken. I don’t remember what happened in between, I think there was some explosions in there somewhere.’ 

‘How did you get back to the TARDIS?’ Graham asked her.

The Doctor pulled her sonic screwdriver out of her pocket and scrutinised it thoughtfully. 

‘The sonic was connected to the TARDIS. Someone, I’m assuming me, had set up a link that was just powerful enough to use as a dog whistle.’ 

The TARDIS beeped again, as though she objected to being referred to as a dog, and the Doctor patted the console affectionately.

‘You know what I meant.’ 

‘And you don’t remember what happened in between?’

The Doctor frowned, her eyes glazing over a little. ‘I think someone rescued me, I don’t know who though. And then something blew up, and there were gunshots, and I think we must have used a transmat at one point cause my insides feel all jumbled up. But no, not really.’

‘I’m glad you’re okay, Yaz said gently, and the Doctor allowed herself to be pulled into a hug, Graham putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder. 

‘I think you know what I’m going to suggest, Doc,’ he said softly, but she was already shaking her head. 

‘Nope.’

‘Quick 20 minutes.’

‘Nope.’

‘It’ll make you feel better.’

‘Still nope.’

‘We’ll stay with you.’ 

The Doctor faltered and looked up them curiously, as though she was questioning their motives.

‘Yeah, we’ll all go sit in the library, have a bit of a rest, then we can get pizza cakes for dinner,’ Ryan said, as enthusiastically as he could manage under the circumstances.

‘They sound amazing,’ Yaz said with a smile.

‘Yeah, what do you say, Doc?’ Graham said. ‘I’ll put the kettle on and we’ll put our feet up with a cuppa.’

The Doctor twisted her hands but Yaz could see they were wearing her down. 

‘Just 20 minutes, yeah?’

‘Definitely. We’ll get the fire going, get the blankets out and have a bit of a cuddle.’

She nodded and Yaz took her hand, leading her down the labyrinth of corridors while Graham and Ryan went off to boil the kettle. 

When they joined the two women in the library barely five minutes later, they found them sat on the sofa, the Doctor already asleep and curled up against Yaz. 

‘Literally as soon as she sat down,’ Yaz told them quietly, hand in the Doctor’s hair gently stroking her head. ‘Did not pass go, did not collect £200. Immediately out.’ 

Graham tucked a blanket over her and settled himself down in his favourite armchair, mug of tea in his hand, Ryan crashing out on his beanbag and stretching his arms out over his head. 

‘What do you reckon pizza cakes are then?’ Graham asked.

‘Honestly I’m hoping they’re calzones,’ Ryan said. ‘But knowing the Doctor they’ll probably have a jam and cream filling.’ 

 

36

Yaz woke up in the dark, a heavy arm wrapped around her waist, a nose pressed against the back of her neck.

The TARDIS was quiet, humming to herself. If it wasn’t for the slight vibration, which Yaz usually was able to tune out completely, she may not have even known that she was on a spaceship. The body behind her snuggled into her, sighing contentedly against her neck.

‘You awake?’ Yaz whispered, only to receive a muffled ‘hmm’ in response. 

She rolled onto her other side, pulling the Doctor against her. She still wasn’t sure what she’d done to deserve this beautiful blonde, and  _ extremely  _ naked, woman in her bed. They’d be in the console room, just talking, admiring the stars through the open doors, then they’d been kissing and hands had gone everywhere and clothes had been surrendered to the floor and by the time they’d made it into Yaz’s room they’d been so wound up they’d practically decimated each other. And, honestly, the sight of the Doctor’s head between her legs was something Yaz wasn’t going to forget for a loooong time. 

Yaz really hoped they’d have time to clear their clothes from the console room before the boys woke up though. As fun as the naked run down the corridor had been. 

She became aware of slender fingers stroking the inside of her thighs, and she realised the Doctor was watching her, eyelids hooded, shuffling to press their bodies closer together as their mouths found each other and they kissed slowly, the Doctor’s fingers moving higher, that familiar ache starting to build between Yaz’s legs. 

‘Already?’ Yaz whispered with a smile and the Doctor kissed the corner of her mouth. 

‘You’re the one that woke me up.’

Yaz rolled on top of her, pinning the Doctor beneath her, the blonde’s eyes black with desire as she looked up at her. 

‘Yes I did,’ she said with a smirk. ‘And it’s my turn now.’

‘To do what?’ the Doctor whispered, but when Yaz easily slipped two fingers inside her already wet heat the Doctor’s eyes went wide, her head went back, and the only sounds she made after that were breathy gasps and cries of pleasure.

Yaz hoped the walls were soundproof because she was  _ loud.  _

 


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'VE NOT UPDATED THIS SINCE FEBRUARY OMG.
> 
> Some shorter drabbles today, just to get back into practice :)

37

It was dark when Yaz’s phone rang, and she blearily tried to blink herself awake as she reached for it, fingers knocking it onto the floor when she flung out an arm to locate it.

Annoyed, she scooted her fingers along the floor until she felt it and rubbed her eyes, checking the number on the screen and wincing as the harsh light burned her retinas. 

Except it wasn’t a number, it was one of those weird circular shapes that the Doctor had all around the TARDIS and it was flashing golden at her. 

‘YAZ!’

The Doctor’s voice sounded loudly in her ear as soon as she accepted the call and Yaz winced and pulled away from the phone for a second, flicking her bedside light on before putting her ear back to the speaker.

‘Morning,’ she grumbled, seeing the clock on her bedside table flash 3am at her.

‘Is it? Not sure what time it is over here. Late evening I think. Maybe early morning, possibly just gone midnight? Difficult to tell.’

‘Doctor, what -?’

‘Oh! Yes, sorry, distracting myself. What date and time are you?’

‘Eh?’

‘Date and time, Yaz! I need a fast exit.’

There was a loud bang in the background and she heard the Doctor gasp as there was a thud and what sounded like someone screaming.

‘Are you okay?’

‘DATE AND TIME, YAZ!’

She was running, Yaz was sure of it, judging by the fast breaths in her ear and the weird clicking sounds she heard, almost as though she was wearing heels.

Yaz hoped she wasn’t. Heels and the Doctor went together that a tortoise and the Olympics, although that would probably be unfair on the tortoise. 

No sooner had Yaz told her the date and time there was a flash, a burning smell, and then the Doctor dropped out of the air and landed straight on her, knocking the wind out of her as she was suddenly assaulted by a tangle of blonde hair in her face. 

‘Oh, hey, sorry,’ the Doctor said cheerfully, rolling off her and onto her back, gasping up at the ceiling while she tried to catch her breath. 

She was dressed in what may once had been a very pretty red cocktail dress and a pair of heels, but she was covered in dirt and soot and, judging from the smell of her anyway, had probably been partly blown up at some point in the past twenty minutes. 

‘Are you okay?’ Yaz ventured, when no explanation was forthcoming.

‘Huh?’ the Doctor turned her face to look at her and yawned, and Yaz realised she’d fallen asleep. ‘Oh, yeah, I’m fine. Just tired. I did a lot of running. Can I crash here for a bit? Should probably leave it a couple of hours before I go back for the TARDIS. You know, just in case the guys with guns still fancy taking a pot at me.’

She pulled herself sleepily up from the bed and started to strip in Yaz’s room, dress falling to the floor and heels kicked under the bed until she stood in just her underwear, yawning into her hand.

Yaz clambered out of bed and stood in front of her, holding her hands so she could inspect her skin, looking for any injuries or wounds that would need attending to before she passed out. She seemed reasonably okay, maybe a few playground scrapes here and there but otherwise she was remarkably uninjured. 

‘M’fine,’ the Doctor mumbled, leaning into Yaz. ‘Really. Just been a crazy night.’

‘You stink of smoke.’

‘Yeah, stuff was on fire.’

‘Come on, let’s sort you out.’

The Doctor let herself be led to the bathroom and Yaz was grateful that her family were all out for the evening at a wedding. She’d been unable to attend due to work but she was suddenly grateful for this. How her friends and family would have reacted to the Doctor dropping out of the sky she neither knew nor wanted to find out.

‘Have a shower, I’ll leave some clean clothes outside the door for you,’ Yaz said, handing her a towel, and a few moments later she heard the water running and the soft sound of the Doctor humming quietly to herself. 

Yaz was half asleep again when the Doctor padded quietly into her room, dressed in the baggy t-shirt and pyjama bottoms she’d left out for her, and Yaz could practically feel her dithering in the doorway, unsure whether she was allowed back in or if she had to stay on the sofa for the night.

‘Get in if you’re sleeping,’ Yaz mumbled, budging over in the bed and lifting the duvet for the Doctor to clamber in.

‘Thanks, Yaz,’ the Doctor sighed happily, wriggling under the covers. ‘My feet are killing. How do women walk in heels?? Is it witchcraft?’

‘And practice,’ Yaz yawned. ‘Now go to sleep. You can tell me what happened in the morning.’

‘Can we have cereal?’

‘I’ve only got Cornflakes.’

‘That’ll do. Night, Yaz.’

‘Night, Doctor.’

 

38

The TARDIS was pinging crossly when Graham, Ryan and Yaz walked into the console room, ready for their next adventure.

_ Although,  _ Graham considered.  _ ‘Adventure’ was probably the wrong word.  _ Graham was fully prepared for things to go pear shaped. He’d been travelling with the Doc for so long now that he didn't think he’d even be surprised if a bunch of aliens intent on mayhem turned up out of the blue and their peaceful evening (although judging from the sing-a-long he’d heard Yaz and Ryan having while they’d gotten changed he doubted peaceful would be the tone of the evening) was ruined. 

‘You lot ready?’ the Doctor called from under her console. ‘Almost done. She’s being stubborn again.’

The TARDIS made a whizzing noise and the Doctor glared up at the time roter crossly. Graham didn't speak ‘TARDIS’, but he’d put money on it that that had been a rude word. 

‘What are you doing?’ Yaz asked, peering curiously over the edge of the console. The only indication that her friend was even under there came from the muffled swearing and the long legs sticking out.

‘Fixing the Chameleon Circuit!’ the Doctor called up, making a cross sound as a stray spark caught her fingertips. ‘Temporarily anyway.’

‘The what, Doc?’ Graham asked. 

‘Chameleon Circuit,’ her muffled voice said. ‘Helps the TARDIS to blend into her surroundings.’

‘I don’t think she does a very good job, Doctor,’ Ryan said. ‘I mean she looks awesome but a 1960’s police box isn’t very common anymore.’

The Doctor dragged herself out from under her console and adjusted the flower crown perched on top of her curly blonde hair. She was dressed in a tiny pair of denim shorts and a vest top and Yaz almost died at the amount of skin on show; her legs seemed to travel on for miles. She’d managed to find some glitter and had smeared it across her cheeks, the effect very festival-goer-esk. 

Yaz was glad the Doctor wasn’t looking at them, as she was fairly sure her cheeks must be bright pink. 

‘She parked in 1960’s London years and years ago, disguised herself as a police box, and the circuit got stuck,’ the Doctor was saying, fiddling with some controls. 

‘And why are you waiting until  _ now  _ to fix the circuit?’ Graham asked, confused. ‘It’s not like we couldn’t have done with her being a little more inconspicuous in some of the places we’ve been to!’

‘She likes it!’ the Doctor protested. ‘Everytime I fix the circuit she lands us back in the 1960’s and deliberately breaks it again. She’s very stubborn. Thing is though, the TARDIS and festivals are usually a bit hit and miss. A lot of drunken hippies like getting photographs with her and she doesn’t like it. Last time she electrocuted some of them.’

‘She  _ electrocuted them,’  _ Graham said, scandalised. 

‘Only a bit!’ the Doctor said. ‘Just a little shock, nothing dangerous or permanent.’

‘So you’re fixing the circuit to stop her electrocuting people?’ Yaz said, finally managing to drag her eyes away from the Doctor’s long, slender legs. 

‘Yup!’ the Doctor said, dashing around the console and beginning the landing sequence. ‘Just for tonight. Keep her safe from those Bowie fans.’

The ship made the  _ thunk  _ sound to indicate it had landed and the Doctor grinned at her friends, tucking her arm through Yaz’s.

‘Ready?’ she asked, and Yaz nodded eagerly. David Bowie headlining Glastonbury in 2000? Her dad would be so jealous.

It was hot outside and busy, the sounds of music and laughter all around them as people mingled around the field in a heavy thrum. The Doctor was in her element and looked delighted by the activities, grinning broadly and clutching Yaz’s hand tightly in hers. 

‘Come on then you lot! Let’s get a - oh for  _ goodness  _ sake.’

The three humans turned around to see what she was looking at and Ryan bit back a snort of laughter, Graham guffawing loudly.

The TARDIS had disguised herself as a portaloo. 

‘Seriously?’ the Doctor said, hands on her hips.  _ ‘Seriously.’ _

‘I mean, she is blending in,’ Yaz said, looking around at the other portaloos around them. 

‘Look, I know you like your police box look, but I did this for your own good. You do realise this is going to be worse,’ the Doctor said, marching up to her portaloo-ship and poking it sternly. ‘You think being a police box is bad, people are going to try and  _ poo in you.’ _

The TARDIS made a quiet  _ bing  _ sound and the Doctor waved her arms, exasperated. 

‘Fine! Be it on your own head. Keep the electrocuting to a minimum. Come on fam.’

She strolled away, linking her arm with Yaz’s again as they headed towards the main field. A line of people was beginning to form behind Ryan, believing he was waiting for the toilet, and Graham quickly grabbed an  _ out of order  _ sign from another portaloo and hung it on the TARDIS doors.

‘Don’t worry,’ he said quietly. ‘I’ve got your back.’

The TARDIS  _ bonged  _ at him.

 

39

‘There you are!’

Yaz almost sprinted into the cafe when she saw the Doctor sat quietly in the window, picking at the crust on her fried egg sandwich. She looked smaller than she had the day before, almost shrunken and fragile in her too-big clothes, and Yaz felt the overwhelming urge to give her a massive hug.

‘Oh, hey,’ the Doctor said, looking up at her as Yaz slid into the seat opposite. ‘You alright?’

‘Me? I’m fine!’ Yaz replied, pulling out her phone to send a quick text to Graham and Ryan to let them know where she was. ‘I’ve been looking for you for hours!’

‘Really?’ 

The Doctor looked shocked, eyes wide, and the waitress came over to take away her now empty plate, leaving a steaming cup of coffee in its place which the Doctor practically inhaled.

‘Yes really! You just disappeared!’

Yaz felt cross, although she wasn’t sure if it was justified or not, but her feet were sore from walking around Sheffield for hours and the Doctor didn't seem to realise just  _ how much she’d missed her. _

‘I thought you wouldn’t want me around,’ her friend said, confused. ‘After… you know.’

Yaz knew, and she reached out a hand to take the Doctor’s.

‘Of course we’d still want you around,’ she said softly. ‘What happened to Grace wasn’t your fault. You know that, right?’

The Doctor looked down at her coffee, but didn't say anything, and Yaz felt her phone vibrate in her pocket, a text from Ryan appearing on the screen.

_ On our way. _

‘I thought you didn't have any money?’ Yaz said, changing the subject and nodding her head at the coffee cup clasped tightly in the Doctor’s cold fingers. ‘Empty pockets, right?’

‘There’s a sign in the window,’ the Doctor said, gesturing at the door of the cafe. ‘It said that the homeless get a free breakfast.’

‘Are you homeless?’ Yaz asked, curiously. ‘I mean, you must be  _ from  _ somewhere. You can’t just run around crashing through train roofs all the time.’

‘I guess you could say I have a mobile home,’ the Doctor said miserably. ‘But I lost it.’ 

‘Like someone stole it from you?’ Yaz asked. ‘Cause you know I’m police, right? I could try and track it down for you.’

‘I don’t think she’s even in this galaxy anymore,’ the Doctor said sadly, but before Yaz could question what she meant by  _ she  _ or  _ galaxy,  _ the doors were opening and Graham and Ryan were tumbling in.

‘Doc!’ Graham said, looking relieved. ‘We’ve been worried sick!’

‘You just upped and vanished! We thought something had happened to you,’ Ryan said. He had a scarf in his hands and he wrapped it around the Doctor’s neck, sitting down next to her while Graham sat next to Yaz.

‘She thought we wouldn’t want her around anymore,’ Yaz told them, and that immediately started up a chorus of protests from the two men as they argued to the contrary. 

‘Don’t be so daft,’ Graham said. ‘Of course we want you around still. You’re our friend. Now come on, you’re coming home with me and Ryan. We’ll wash your clothes for you and you can have a hot shower and a proper sleep, you’ll feel loads better.’

The Doctor looked stunned to the point of tears and Yaz squeezed her cold hand tightly.

‘You saved us, all of us,’ she told her. ‘And we’re not going to push you away, so please don’t do the same to us.’

The Doctor nodded, not trusting herself to speak, and Ryan tucked his coat around her shoulders as he led her out of the cafe.

 

40

‘My insides feel all churny,’ Graham remarked, a hand on his stomach as he stretched out across the sofa. They’d just arrived home - and it was funny how quickly he’d come to think of the TARDIS as his home - from Resus One and the events of the past few days (or day really, they’d been unconscious for the other four) had finally caught up with them. The Pting seemed like a distant memory, although in reality it was only a few hours in the past.

‘Same, my head feels a bit like there’s a whirlpool in it,’ Yaz said, looking decidedly green. ‘Everytime I close my eyes I have to open them again cause I feel dizzy.’

‘I feel that,’ Ryan replied, stretching out his legs as he slouched in the armchair. ‘I can feel my intestines moving, s’not the most pleasant of sensations.’

‘What about you, Doc? Anything moving that shouldn’t be?’ Graham called to the other occupant of the TARDIS’s gigantic library, stretched out across the other sofa like he was.

‘She’s asleep,’ Yaz said, looking down at their friend from her position next to her, noting the frown on the Doctor’s face. Even in her dreams she was arguing with someone, always determined to have the upper hand. She had her hand over the spot where she said her ectospleen was but she didn't seem to be in pain; just cross about something. That was the other thing Yaz wanted to ask her about, cause she’d done GCSE biology but she’d never once heard of an  _ ectospleen.  _

‘Glad someone’s managing to get some rest,’ Graham grumbled. ‘What we doing about dinner?’

‘You seriously want to eat with churny insides?’ Yaz said, eyebrow raised. ‘I can’t even think about food right now.’

‘I could go for a pizza, probably,’ Ryan said. ‘I mean, if there was one in front of me I wouldn’t say no.’

‘Don’t,’ Yaz said pulling a face. ‘I can’t think of anything worse.’

‘Loads of cheese, some pepperoni, chopped peppers, bit of hot sauce…’

‘Stop,’ Graham said, looking pained.

‘I could go for that,’ the Doctor mumbled, opening an eye and looking up at Yaz.

‘Back to sleep you,’ Yaz replied, putting the blanket over her friend’s face. 

 

41

It was late, or maybe early, and the Doctor was still crossly fiddling with her controls, the ship complaining under her hands. She’d been trying for hours now to get her three passengers back to Sheffield, desperate to get them somewhere safe before history started repeating itself. Desolation had been a doddle compared to some of her  _ other  _ more hair-raising adventures and she’d sworn to herself to stop inviting strays on board after…

Well. After Bill.

And Nardole.

And Missy. 

‘Don’t give me that!’ she told her console sternly. ‘I know you’re doing this on purpose. Stop making me look incompetent.’

The TARDIS made a noise which, if Graham didn't know better, sounded an awful lot like laughing and the Doctor glared at the large crystal in the centre of the circular desk. It was bizarre, this spaceship of hers. It hummed as though it was alive and the coral theme was like nothing he’d ever seen before. The way the Doctor chatted to her ship, and reprimanded it for not doing what she wanted, was bizarre as well and Graham was starting to feel like he was intruding on a personal moment with the two of them.

‘Everything alright there, Doc?’ Graham asked cautiously, exchanging a confused look with Yaz and Ryan.

‘Fine! Just fine,’ the Doctor replied, a little too enthusiastically. She straightened up and sighed, rubbing her face with her hands, and Yaz remembered that she hadn’t taken the opportunity to nap on the small boat like they had.

‘I mean we’re not in any hurry to get back,’ Yaz said, looking at the two men who nodded their agreement. ‘And I could really do with a shower. My family might wonder where I managed to get covered in sand in Sheffield if I turn up like this.’ She looked around the console room, confused.  ‘Do you have showers? Or is this it?’

‘There’s showers somewhere!’ the Doctor replied, snatching her hand back and muttering something crossly when the console sparked at her. ‘She’s redesigned the interior so they won’t be where they were last time, but they’re around somewhere. Have a wander till you find them. You’ll probably all have bedrooms somewhere too if you fancy a quick snooze. She’s good like that.’

‘“She”?’ Ryan asked.

‘The TARDIS.’

‘All ships are referred to as “she”,’ Yaz told Ryan smugly. ‘It’s cause we’re the superior gender. Right, Doctor?’

The Doctor looked at her, confused, before remembering.

‘Oh yeah! Cause I’m a woman now! Sorry, keep forgetting that bit. Yes, definitely superior. Although in this instance, it’s more because the TARDIS is alive.’

_ ‘Alive?’ _

That was from Graham, who suddenly decided to stop leaning against the crystal pillar he’d been pressed against for the past five minutes.

The TARDIS made that strange noise again that sounded like laughing and Graham glanced anxiously up at the ceiling. 

‘Starting to feel a bit outnumbered here,’ Ryan said, and Yaz laughed. 

‘Right, showers. Come on then,’ she told the other two. ‘Let’s leave these ladies to it.’ 

  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> come at me with your requests!


End file.
